Brother to Brother
by MadFox32
Summary: 20 oneshots about Klavier and Kristoph's adorable childhood together. Well... As cute as Kristoph gets, anyways. The title comes from Klaviers line in the last trial of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney: "We were supposed to face each other in that trial! A fair fight, brother to brother! I deserved that much!" (#20, as you might guess, will be about them meeting after the Misham trial)
1. Chapter 1

I loved writing this story, but I've improved a lot since I wrote it! (It didn't help that I wrote most of this story on my tablet, since I didn't have a laptop at the time.) Since this is one of my favorite stories, I'm going to revise it a little. This story helped me find my writing style- humor, fluff, and a touch of **ANGST**, accented with glorious dramatic irony. I love this story because it was totally me, not me writing to the whims of my fans. Not that I don't love you guys, but I write best from my own heart, not yours.

From now on, my author's notes are going to be great quotes about/by the Gavins, unless I have something of value to say. Just a note (no pun intended), the timeline is really difficult. I'll explain it later, when I'm feeling less lazy. XD

"…_Kristoph! We were supposed to face each other in that trial! A fair fight, brother to brother! I deserved that much!" _~Klavier Gavin, Turnabout Succession

(O)

Kristoph Gavin hated mini-golf.

It might have had to do with the fact that the clubs weren't made for lefties- it was always extremely difficult to putt-putt with the rounded end. It might have had to do with how boring it was to walk around, lightly tap a small ball, and walk around some more. It might have had to do with the fact that he always hit the ball too hard, often watching it plop into the artificially colored water.

But whatever the reason, Kristoph wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.

The strong, independent 7th grader sat at his desk, reading a law textbook. His middle school didn't offer a law class, but he had eagerly agreed to do an older friend's homework in order to learn about it before then. He was reading about foreign law systems, and his distaste for what the book called the "Jurist System" caused his face to contort with disgust.

"Whatcha reading?" A blond kindergartener poked his face up above Kristoph's book. Kristoph jumped. "Hahaha, did I scare you?"

"No, Klavier. Big boys don't get scared."

"Oh." He paused to think for a moment. "Then why do you sleep with a night light?"

"B-because I don't want to trip over anything if I need to leave the room."

"Oh." The small child's blue eyes lit up as he remembered why he had come. "Will you take me putt putting, Kris?"

"No."

"But it's my birthday tomorrow!" The blue eyes melted into those awful puppy dog eyes, and Kristoph refused to look into them.

"Then I'll take you tomorrow."

"No you won't! You have a play date with Lucas then!" Kristoph stiffened.

"I don't have_ play dates_. I _hang out_. And how did you hear about that?"

"I heard you talking on the phone about it," he answered innocently, though Kristoph knew he was far from it. _The little guy knows what he's doing, all right._

"Why do you want to go so badly?"

"Because I wanna play with you."

"_Hang out_." Knowing Klavier, it would be hours until he was left alone. Besides, it wasn't like any _mature _middle school kids would go putt putting, so nobody would be able to make fun of him. "All right, fine," he sighed.

"Yaaay!" The small blond child squealed. "Come on, Kris! Let's go now!"

"But Kris-"

"Now!"

(O)

No leftie clubs? Check. Ridiculously boring? Check. Now all that could go wrong is for his ball to go flying across the course and hit some kid.

Kristoph watched his brother smack around his purple ball (Kristoph was sure he would outgrow the girly color eventually), as Klavier quickly began to lose his temper.

"Stupid ball! Just go in!"

"Klavier, it's just a game. There's no need to get worked up."

"But I wanna be good like you!" Kristoph smiled, though for unsentimental reasons- only someone as naive as his brother could call him good at mini-golf.

"Here, let me help," Kristoph said, standing behind his brother. _What could possibly go wrong? _He gently guided Klavier's shaky hands to swing in a straight line a few times. "Try to keep it as straight as you can." The little boy nodded. He wore a look of intense concentration as he swung the club back and forth. Finally, he hit the ball. Kristoph stifled a laugh as it went completely off course- only to gasp as it bounced off the wall and into the hole.

"I did it! I did it!" He jumped up and down, dropping his club. _Lucky shot._

"That was very cool, Klavier." The little boy looked up at him with a bright smile, seeming very proud of himself.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Ooh, let's go to the next one!" _Oh, right. There's seventeen more holes of this._

"Argh! It didn't go in!" He shouted before Kristoph even reached the next course.

"That's okay. Practice makes perfect."

"Can you help me again?"

"Fine." Kristoph guided his little hands in a straight line, hoping his brother didn't actually expect it to make that much of a difference. To Kristoph's surprise, the ball went perfectly straight, and made a _plunk _as it fell into the hole.

"Wow, you did it again!" Kristoph exclaimed. He blushed, trying to regain his composure. _Come on, Kristoph, you're a middle schooler. You aren't some little kid._

"Woahhh! Kristoph, you're **amazing**! Ok, it's your turn now."

Kristoph carefully aimed towards the hole. When he hit the ball, however, the ball jumped off the course and into the fountain.

"Kristoph, how'd ya do that? You're so strong!" It seemed as if his brother would praise him for anything at this point.

As they moved from course to course, Klavier got better and better, easily shooting hole in ones while Kristoph continued to struggle, claiming that he was trying to go easy on his brother. As they approached hole 17, Klavier turned to his brother.

"Kris, will you go hard on me this time? Please?"

"Oh, fine." Kristoph knew that this shot had to be perfect, or his little brother would be very upset. He looked at the water behind the course, and told himself to ease up a bit- he was not going to go back to the information center to get a **fourth** ball. _I just have to hit it straight, right? Just lightly go back and forth... Keep it straight... _He aimed carefully, and swung the ball. The ball did go straight... into the air, pelting his little brother in the stomach. The young child fell backwards into the fountain. His eyes welled up with tears, and he began wailing. Kristoph ran up to the edge of the water. "Klavier! Are you ok?" He was answered by more wailing. _I suppose I'm expected to get myself wet trying to rescue him. _He stepped in the water, scooping up the child and abandoning his fourth ball into the artificial sapphire depths. The sopping wet young boy buried his head into Kristoph's chest, still crying.

_My ball flew across the course and hit some kid? Check.__  
><em>

"Kristoph... When I said to go hard on me, I meant to do as good as you could, not to make the ball go hard at me!"

"Klavier... I'm sorry, that was an accident." Klavier looked up at him with wide, teary blue eyes. "Would you like to hear a secret?"

"Uh huh."

"I wasn't going easy on you. You're much better than me."

"I knew it!" His brother smiled, weakly.

"Let's go home."

"But we still haven't done the last hole!" he whined.

"Klavier, you were sobbing two seconds ago. I think we should just go home."

"No! I'm all better!" Klavier wormed his way out of Kristoph's grip and stood up. "Come on!"

"I don't have a ball. If you really want to do the last hole, you can do it by yourself."

Klavier looked up at him sweetly. "Will you help me?"

"...All right." For the third time, Kristoph gently rocked his brother's hand back and forth. Stepping back, he watched as the ball went perfectly straight, and into the 1 point hole. Buzzers went off, and everyone nearby stared. An employee walked up to the two.

"Congratulations! You've won another round for free! Isn't that exciting?" a peppy girl asked.

"Yaaaaayyy! I get to play with Kris more!" Klavier exclaimed.

"Klavier..."

"Woo hoo!"

"_..Klavier._"

"Come on!"

"...**Objectio****n!**"


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys! Just to let you know, I'm not going in any particular age order. Speaking of ages, I'd like to clarify something- because Klavier becomes a prosecutor at age 17, he had to have skipped at least 2 grades in Elementary School, and left high school early. So for this story, these 2 grades are 1st and 4th. Kristoph didn't skip anything. So that clears up any age confusion, ja? XD

Speaking of ja, you guys may have noticed the lack of German. That's because little Klavier hasn't studied abroad yet. So, as much as it pains me to do this, the child version of him doesn't even know how to say "I love you" or "where is the toilet?" in German :(

"Kristoooooph…." The sixth grader looked sweetly at his brother.

"What do you want?"

"I have a question."

"I might have an answer."

"How do you get a girlfriend?" Kristoph jumped. This was **not **a question he was expecting to hear from a nine year old.

"Why on earth do you want a girlfriend?!"

"Because I heard that girlfriends and boyfriends give each other presents and stuff, even when it isn't Christmas or your birthday."

"Klavier, you don't get a girlfriend just so you can get presents."

"I wasn't finished! There's this girl in my class, who's really funny and pretty…" The little boy blushed, tracing the ground with his foot. "But she won't be my friend because she said that girls and boys can never stay friends, or their boyfriend or girlfriend will get jealous, like on TV. So I thought that if I was her girlfriend, there'd be nobody to be jealous of me!"

"That's not true. It's silly to say that boys and girls can't just be friends."

"Well… You always say that evidence is everything, right? So are any of your friends girls?"

"…"

"See? She was right! Boys and girls **can't **be just friends."

"Klavier, I don't have that many friends. Girls talk too much. If I liked listening to people talk, then I might have a girl friend."

"Yeah, a girlfriend! But you wouldn't just be friends!"

"I didn't mean to say girlfriend, it just came out that way."

"Please, Kristoph! Just tell me!"

"I don't know much about girls."

"I don't care. Just tell me. " Klavier looked at him with pleading eyes, and Kristoph knew that if he didn't give him the answer he wanted, he would never be left alone.

"Fine. I guess… Err…" Kristoph hadn't ever really thought about it much. He had never wanted a girlfriend, even as a junior in high school. He thought about Lucas, who always had some girl around his arm. "Well… Just be really nice to them. And try to look as good as you can."

"How?" Klavier asked. Kristoph saw an opening that he had spent years waiting for.

"Well first, you might want to think about having your hair short. Girls think my hair is really weird, but I don't care much about what girls think."

"But I wanna be like you, Kristoph."

"But you want to have a girlfriend. If you really wanted to be like me, you wouldn't want to have a girlfriend."

"But I do want a girlfriend."

"So I think you should cut your hair. And you have to take a shower every day, and not just every other day."

"But showers are so boring!"

"Do you want a girlfriend or not?"

"Oh, fine." _Did I really just convince Klavier to cut his hair? And shower? I'm a genius._

"And besides looking good and being super nice, you should do other things. Like you could give her presents."

"Like jewelry?" Kristoph laughed.

"Maybe not jewelry yet. Most girls your age don't like jewelry very much. But you could give her chocolate."

"Oh! Like the heart-shaped kind?"

"Sure. I bet she would love it."

"Thanks, Kristoph!" His little brother squeezed him around the waist. Kristoph was never quite sure what to do when his brother gave him hugs. Kristoph awkwardly patted him on the head.

"Um, Kristoph?"

"Yes?"

"Can we go to the store and buy chocolate?" Kristoph normally would protest, but he knew that he was going to end up at the store no matter what.

"All right, let's go."

0

One of the best things about living in the outskirts of Los Angeles was that you could easily walk to most places. There was a general store very close to the Gavin family's apartment, and Klavier skipped the whole way. The brothers' mother had died when Klavier was a baby, and their father, a lawyer, was almost always at work, so Kristoph had the freedom to do anything he wished without permission. Taking his little brother to the store was no exception; his father always kept a twenty dollar bill hidden for Kristoph so that he could run errands of this nature.

They walked into the store, and Klavier practically dove for the candy aisle. Kristoph hoped that he didn't see anyone he knew there. No such luck. As Kristoph headed trailed behind his brother, he noticed a familiar face. _Of all the people who could be here…_

"Oh! Kristoph! What are you doing here?"

"Err… Hello, Melissa. I was buying something for my little brother."

"That cutie who just ran through here is your brother?"

"Yeah. That would be him."

Melissa Gant was one of the few girls in his Law I class, and possibly the only girl who hadn't been forced into the class by their parents (although she probably would have been forced into it anyways, knowing her grandfather). If anyone contradicted Kristoph's claim that all girls were chatty and annoying, it was her. Kristoph spoke to her for a while, finally seeing a blond child come bounding out of the candy aisle, clutching a bag of chocolate hearts.

"Kristoph? Is this good enough to get a girlfriend?"

"Buying something for your little brother, hmm?" A huge smile spread across Melissa's face.

"Well, he… err…"

"Yeah! Kristoph was telling me how if you wanted a girlfriend, you had to be super nice, and look good, and give her stuff," Klavier recited.

"Hmm. Well, I think there's a little more to it than that." Melissa looked at Kristoph and grinned. _Am I… Blushing? This can't be happening…. _"Do you want me to show you how to make sure they'll go out with you?"

"Really? You'd do that?"

"Of course!" Melissa leaned over to Kristoph, and kissed him on his very red cheeks.

"OHHHHHH! Kristoph's got a girlfriend! Kristoph's got a girlfriend!" Klavier danced around, singing.

_This is what I get for giving out relationship advice._

On their way out, Klavier turned towards Kristoph and said, "I told you that boys and girls can't just be friends."


	3. Chapter 3

It was freezing.

Klavier looked and felt like a small snowman. The second-grader was covered in snow from head to toe, and snow was packed into parts of his coat that he didn't even know could hold snow. Blood lazily oozed out of a small scratch under one eye.

Klavier Gavin was having the most fun he'd had all winter.

"Kris! That was soooo fun! Let's go again!"

"Klavier, you're bleeding." The 8th grader brought a glove to his brother's cheek and gently wiped off the tiny bit of blood.

"Ow, don't touch it!"

"Err, sorry. Klavier, we should go home now. Aren't you cold?"

"I'm having too much fun to be cold!"

"It won't be fun when you have frostbite."

"I'm not gonna get frostbite! I'm fine, Kristoph. Can we pleeeease go again?"

"All right, fine. But only a few more times, okay?"

"Yay! Thanks, Kris!"

"Klavier, let's go somewhere less... Thorny. Dad won't be happy if your face gets any more scratched up."

The two brothers had been sledding for almost an hour, at Klavier's request, of course. He had never done anything quite like it before, as his dad was always working, and, well... Kristoph's just no fun. It had been really hard to convince his cool, grown-up older brother to go out in public and play in the snow, but Klavier knew he could force his brother to do just about anything if he was annoying enough.

Klavier scrambled up the hills on all fours, and his puffy black coat made him feel like a bear.

"Kristoph, I'm a black bear! Grawr!"

"Well, I'm a human." Kristoph's tone made the little 'bear' growl, almost like a real bear.

"You're no fun."

"If you really are a bear, it would explain the state of your room." Kristoph smirked. He clearly decided to play along. "I'm not just an ordinary human though. Guess what kind of human I am?"

"A mean one." Kristoph quickly scooped up his brother as his little brother spoke bitterly.

"A hunter." Kristoph grinned as his little brother attempted to wriggle free. He walked up the slope with his prize, knowing that he couldn't laugh or his grip would loosen. Approaching a tree, Kristoph dropped his brother, only to grab him by the ankles before his face could be covered in snow.

"Kristoph, lemme go!" The boy, now upside-down, struggled to be freed from the 'bear trap'. He wriggled around violently, eventually striking his head against the tree. He screamed, and his surprised brother dropped him headfirst into the snow.

"Oh my gosh! Klavier, are you all right?" The little boy lay on his back in the snow, wailing. Kristoph sat down next to him, grimacing as he felt cold wetness penetrate his clothing. "It's ok, you're going to be just fine..."

"Kristoph, it **hurts**."

"Can I see it?" The 8th grader gently lifted his brother's head. He jumped when he saw a pool of blood staining the snow behind his head a vivid red. He felt nauseous, but he remembered from health class that he didn't want to send the child into shock. Kristoph stroked the child's long blond hair, which messily imitated his own.

"Is it bad?"

"If it was really bad, you wouldn't be awake." Kristoph loved to cleverly avoid people's questions.

"Ok." The boy's eyes were puffy from crying. Kristoph pulled out his cell phone, wondering how to call 911 without scaring his brother.

"_Hello?"_

_"_Hi. My brother is hurt, and he might have a... cranial fracture." Kristoph knew his brother had no idea what that meant. "He slammed into a tree, and it appears that he's lost about a liter of blood." Klavier also didn't know what a liter was.

_"Where are you? Is he awake?"_

"Yes, we're in people park, on the hilly side, not the mansion side."

_"Someone will be there in a few minutes."_

"All right, thanks."

"Kristoph?" His brother looked up at him anxiously. "Who was that?"

"She works in a hospital. I just wanted her to look at your head."

"What's a craney all frax ture?"

"Err… It's a bruise." Kristoph felt that he would regret this eventually, but for now, he didn't want to scare his brother.

"Ok."

An ambulance came to the road at the top of the hill, and two men picked up Klavier and carried him away.

"Kristoph! Where am I going?" The little boy tried to wriggle free.

"Stay still, Klavier." His brother obeyed. "That lady I was on the phone with needs to look at your head."

Lucky for him, the doctor inside the ambulance was, indeed, female. "Tell me. What hurts?"

"Umm… My head hurts really bad…" She carefully washed the gash, and bandaged up Klavier's head.

"This is going to hurt for a second, but it's to make the pain in your head go away."

"**Klavier! **She's gonna give me a shot!"

"It's all right, Klavier." Kristoph thought for a second. "Hey, could you tell me how all the notes go on the guitar?"

"Yeah! It's just like the alphabet. A, B, C, D, E, F, GOWWW!" The nurse looked at Kristoph thankfully.

"Oh… That actually wasn't that bad."

"Tell me, is there anything else I should do?"

"Umm… I think I have a cray nee all frak ture on my knee."


	4. Chapter 4

Whoo, another chapter of cuteness. I love writing this, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Until I remember what happens ten years later, and then I sorta just want to cry. XD Oh yeah, if you guys get any fun ideas of things for these guys to do together, I'm all ears. I think it would be fun to have another author write a story off of one of my ideas :)

(0)

Klavier was sprawled out across his messy bed, his feet kicking slightly. The kindergartener listened as his brother's violin made some kind of beautiful sound from the other room. _I want to play music, too. _The child was filled with joy as he imagined himself playing the stringed instrument. _I wonder if Kris would let me play it. _His smile faded as he thought of all kinds of negative responses to the question. He decided that he might as well ask_. What's the worst that could happen? He says no_? He listened until the music stopped, and walked carefully across the room and into Kristoph's room.

"Kris?"

"Yes?"

"Can I play your violin?" Kristoph grunted.

"It's not a violin. It's a viola. And no, I don't want you to play it. If you didn't break it, you'd probably break my ears."

"Please, Kris? I wanna make pretty music like you." His brother looked thoughtfully at Klavier.

"You know, I have an instrument that's sort of like a viola that you could play. It's in my closet. I got it for Christmas years ago. It doesn't break very easily."

"Really?!" Klavier hadn't really been expecting any sort of positive response from his brother.

"You know what a guitar is, right?"

"Yeah! They had them in High School Musical." Kristoph laughed, opening his closet.

"I hope you don't think High School's really like that." He pulled out a large black case. Well, it was black after he wiped off the thick layer of dust, anyways.

"N-no... Of course not." Klavier's cheeks burned with the lie.

"Lying doesn't suit you, Klavier." The 7th grader laughed. Klavier heard a clack as his brother opened the case, revealing a wood instrument. "Here. You can make sounds like this." He plucked a string, and dust leaped off of it. Kristoph sneezed.

"That's not how they did it in High School Musical." Klavier picked up the heavy guitar, which was almost bigger than him. He rested it on his lap, strumming with one hand, and holding the neck with the other. "It sounds bad."

"You can't expect it to sound good the first time, Klavier."

"No, like the notes don't fit together."

"You mean it's out of tune?" Kristoph seemed somewhat impressed by his brother's knowledge of the instrument.

"Yeah. Don't you have to twist these things to fix it?"

"Yeah. But you have to do it in a certain way. You can't just spin them around wildly and expect it to sound right."

"I know. I'm not stupid, Kristoph." The middle schooler's jaw dropped as his brother twisted each knob slightly, strumming every once in a while to check his work. "That sounds better."

"When did you learn how to do that?" Kristoph was shocked.

"That's what the guy in High School Musical did." Klavier blinked. _Is tune-ing supposed to be hard?_

_"_I didn't mean twisting the knobs. I meant learning how to make the notes sound right. Most high schoolers can't do that."

"Really? I just twisted them until it sounded good." Kristoph looked at him, baffled by the simplicity of his statement.

"What else can you do?"

"Umm..." Klavier remembered that to get different notes, you had to press on the strings in a certain way. He wildly pressed strings with his left hand, strumming with his right hand. "I don't know which strings to press," he admitted.

"No! That's good, Klavier. You shouldn't." His brother adjusted his glasses, deep in thought. "I think I remember one chord, actually." He held his brother's hand, and adjusted the small fingers into an awkward position. "Try strumming now." Klavier's face lit up in delight as a pretty sound emanated from the guitar.

"It's so pretty!"

"That's called C." Kristoph tried to explain, but was interrupted by the first grader.

"Umm... There's A, B, C, D, E, F, G, right? I know that." Kristoph seemed extremely impressed.

"How many times have you seen High School Musical?!"

"Two. But the first time I fell asleep at the end."

"Klavier, you're a natural at this. You've really never played the guitar before?"

"No." Klavier felt delighted. He was rarely complimented by his brother, and never more than a simple 'good job'.

"If you learned more notes, you could be really, really good." He thought for a second, and pulled out his laptop. Kristoph had never let Klavier so much as touch his laptop before, but now he went on YouTube and looked up 'guitar lessons'. For the next hour, Klavier watched attentively, learning enough for him to play chords to go along with Ode to Joy. Kristoph had left the room for a few minutes, but after hearing what song was playing, he poked his head back into the room. "Is that Ode to Joy?"

"Yeah."

"I actually have viola music for that." Klavier's eyes lit up.

"We could play together!" Klavier had never felt so excited. Kristoph glanced between the computer screen and his own music.

"It's in the same key. You could play the chords, and I could play the melody." Kristoph smiled as his brother's face lit up with joy.

"You'd let me play with you?!"

"Klavier, you've had that for an hour and you already sound better than I do on my viola. I wouldn't mind at all."

Klavier began to play the chords as his brother came in with the melody. It was all Klavier could do to continue playing without being entranced by the beautiful sound. By the time they were done, both brothers couldn't stop smiling. The music they had played together was beautiful, considering the simplicity of the song.

"Klavier… That was incredible! I think you could be an amazing musician someday."

"But I wanna be a lawyer, like you!" Kristoph laughed.

"I think you could be great at both. I've never heard such pretty music, especially not coming from my room."

"Really?"

"Really."

Ode to Joy couldn't have come close to portraying the happiness in Klavier's heart.


	5. Chapter 5

Here's the pool-shoving story I promised! It has some major foreshadowing at the end, so if you haven't played the game (why are you reading this if you haven't played the game, anyways?!) you're gonna be confused. This story is actually really sad, so sorry if you get as upset reading this as I did writing this. Well, enjoy :D

(0)

Klavier could feel his brother's fury, and the third grader realized that shoving Kristoph into the pool probably hadn't been the best of ideas. (Not that he regretted doing it.)

His brother scrambled out of the pool, water dripping off of him. **"Why on earth would you do that?!"**

"You wouldn't go in the pool," he replied simply.

"Because the only dry clothes I have are thirty minutes away! And we're at a family party, so we can't leave for another two hours!"

"Oh come on, it's just water." The brothers' uncle grinned, patting Klavier on the shoulder. "You've got to loosen up a little bit."

"You're right. I'm sorry for yelling, Klavier." But when their uncle walked away, Kristoph crawled out of the pool and hissed, "You **will **regret this."

Klavier forgot about this fairly quickly, running around excitedly, as a child at their cousin's graduation party normally would.

Kristoph was smiling too, but much less innocently.

(0)

_Is he still asleep? _Kristoph held his ear up to his younger brother's door. He could hear him snoring faintly. _Perfect._ He checked the time- 5:30 am. _Just enough to scare him while it's still dark._

While plotting his revenge, Kristoph remembered two very important details about his brother: He could sleep through falling down the stairs, and he had watched one too many unsettling episodes of CSI with his brother. He cautiously crept into his brother's messy room, and into his closet. He had painted red splotches onto pieces of tape, and he pressed the pieces of tape onto the wall until it resembled blood splatter. Then, he placed a bowl of pennies and warm water on a shelf at the top of the small closet- which now looked and smelled as if someone had spilled a great deal of blood. He grinned at his work. He crept over to his brother, and tapped his shoulder lightly. When he didn't respond, Kristoph picked him up gently, and placed him into the closet. Pulling out some large cable ties, he fastened the child's hands together in the back, and then proceeded to tie his feet and knees together. He smirked at the child, who was still sleeping soundly. Kristoph then proceeded to duct tape his brother's mouth closed, securing it as much as he could without wrapping it around his hair. Kristoph looked outside to see if it was still dark, and saw his father's car come out of the driveway and drive into the darkness. He smiled, knowing that Klavier wouldn't be able to get him in trouble.

_Just one more thing, and I'll be ready._

Kristoph pulled out his tablet, and went onto YouTube, impatiently tapping his finger on the side as it loaded. He typed the words '_scary noises' _into the search bar.

_Are you sure you want to do this to him? He'll probably cry for days._

_Eh. The kid'll be fine. You can't get away with crossing Kristoph Gavin._

Kristoph pressed play, only to pause it immediately when he realized that Klavier could open the closet door simply by kicking it. Kristoph pushed a bookshelf over to rest in front of the door, and resumed the video, putting it on full volume, and placing his tablet on top of the bookshelf. He then quickly sprinted out of the room, closing the door quietly. Kristoph climbed into his own bed to hide, until his eyes became too heavy to hold open. The early morning had gotten to him, and he fell asleep.

"KRISTOPH! KRISTOPH!" The freshman blinked open his eyes, and looked at his watch. 6:43 am. _Why is Klavier calling me so early? Can't he just let me sleep? _Kristoph then remembered what he had done, and tried as hard as he could not to laugh. _Wait… How did he get the duct tape off?_

"Klavier? Where are you?" Kristoph crawled out of his bed, and headed towards his younger brother's room.

"I-I d-don't kn-now!" His brother's voice was incredibly shaky, and Kristoph almost felt a pang of pity. "I-I think so-someone w-was trying t-to k-kidnap me. It's d-dark, and there's b-blood-" Klavier began sobbing so loudly that his next words were unrecognizable.

"It's ok, Klavier, I'm coming." Kristoph then had a very evil idea, fit only for the devil himself. He kicked the wall as hard as he could. "**KLAVIER! HELP! I- AHHH!" **Kristoph kicked the wall again, and didn't make another sound.

"KRISTOPH! NOOOOO!" Kristoph could hear his little brother's sobs, and as this continued, he realized that he had taken his revenge much too far. _He pushed you into a pool. You're making him scream bloody murder, quite literally. _He wasn't quite sure how to end the prank, though. Not after taking it as far as he had. _This isn't who I want to be. _He decided that he was going to have to just walk in and apologize. He dragged away the bookshelf, which had toppled over, so that he could open the door. He paused the scary noise video, which was some sort of ten hour loop, and opened the door slowly.

"KRISTOPH! YOU'RE A Z-ZOMBIE!" _He didn't learn that one from CSI… _Kristoph looked at his brother, who was staring at him with wide eyes, tears streaming down his face. The seven-year-old had red lines across the areas where the cable ties were, as if he had been struggling a great deal. His entire body shook at the sight of his older brother. He sat down next to his brother with a pair of scissors.

"It's ok, Klavier, I'm not a zombie." He cut the cable ties, freeing his brother to squeeze him tightly with trembling arms. "It's ok. The devil who did this to you is gone now."

"A-are you s-sure?" Klavier's voice was muffled by Kristoph's shoulder.

"Yes, I promise. He won't be back for a long time." Kristoph stroked his brother's hair, which had been left untouched throughout the whole endeavor.

"What if he comes back again?"

"I think you'll be stronger by then, Klavier. Don't you worry." His brother squeezed him tightly, smiling sweetly. _I never want to do anything to hurt him this badly ever again._

_(0)_

I don't usually do author's notes at the end, but I have a small favor. I need ideas for a new story. Just tell me a genre to write, or a basic prompt, or something like that, either in a review or a PM. Cool thanks :D


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys! This is another mildly depressing story, so sorry if you aren't quite as fond of those. It's also ridiculously long. But it's probably my favorite story so far, and the central theme behind it means a lot to me. Well, overly serious author's note aside, enjoy!

(P.S. if anyone catches the nerdy reference behind the name of his school, I'll love them forever)

(0)

Klavier hated recess. Every day during lunch he would try and come up with some excuse as to why he couldn't go outside, one time even going so far as to not turn in his homework so that he could be 'punished' and get to stay inside. This lunch was no exception. The young boy sat alone at his lunch table, flipping through excuse after excuse in his mind to get him out of going to recess, to no avail. When the bell rang for the third grade class to go outside, Klavier walked outside nervously, watching as other kids flocked into groups to play various games. Klavier, however, stepped onto the mulched playground and slipped underneath the wooden structure. The ground was damp, and muddy from the rain that had (unfortunately) stopped falling, but Klavier managed to find a tolerably dry patch of mulch to sit on.

Klavier wasn't shy. Outside of John Jay Elementary, Klavier was a friendly child who smiled everywhere he went, and happy to talk for hours on end with everyone he met. However, there was something about the menacing brick building that forced Klavier into quiet solitude. Well, two somethings, to be exact.

"Hey Drill Bit! How's digging under the playground going?"

"Finding anything pretty down there to go with your outfit, Glimmer Boy?"

These two 'somethings' were named Alex and Dillon- and these two somethings spent almost every single day trying to make Klavier as miserable as possible.

"I'm not digging. And I'm not pretty."

"Then what's that drill on your shoulder for?" Alex smirked.

"That's my hair."

"It seems like hair wouldn't be very good for digging with, Drill Bit. I think you should try making it out of metal." Dillon was trying as hard as possible not to burst out laughing as he mocked the blond haired child.

"I'm not trying to dig!"

"Then why is your hair shaped like a drill?" Alex's grin evaporated into false confusion.

"It's not a drill! Now leave me alone!"

"Wow, you're so mean. I was just trying to ask a few questions. No wonder you have no friends," Dillon laughed.

"Go away!" Klavier tried to crawl out from under the playground, but his hair was grabbed by Dillon. "Lemme go!"

"It's rude to leave when people are talking to you, Glimmer Boy. If you want friends, you have to be nice."

"Ow! Lemme go!" Klavier managed to wriggle free, only to have Alex grab him by the shoulders.

"I have some friendship advice for you, too. Purple is a girly color. If you want to have friends who don't have cooties, you should wear boy colors." Alex grinned, keeping a firm grip on his prisoner.

"I like purple!"

"Well, if you wear purple, you won't make any friends. Hmm... I have an idea." Dillon looked down at the muddy ground with an evil grin. "Brown is a boy color. How about I help give you a make-over? I'm sure a girly person like you would have had a lot of those." He reached down and covered his hands in mud.

"No! Stop!" Klavier's protests were halted as a muddy hand clapped over his mouth. The other hand smeared his purple jacket with brown. Alex began to laugh, loosening his hold on the muddy child. Klavier wriggled free and sprinted as fast as he could, not considering where he was going. All he knew was that he had to get far, far away from the playground. He halted when he realized he was at the edge of the road, but when he turned to look behind him, he saw that the two bullies had not given up their chase. He looked left and right as Kristoph had taught him, and he sprinted across the street. He looked back at his tormentors.

"Ooohhh! We're telling! You're gonna be in soooo much trouble, Drill Bit!"

If that meant getting out of recess, Klavier didn't mind one bit. He turned around, gazing upwards at an equally formidable building. He approached it and slumped against the wall, his eyes eventually filling with tears as he allowed the events of the past few minutes sink in. He cried for what felt like an hour, until he felt a small hand on his shoulder.

"Leave me alone." Klavier's agonized voice was muffled by the arm he had buried his face in.

"It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you. Are you all right?" Klavier looked up to see an unfamiliar girl, about as old as his brother. He shook his head no, feeling tears fall from his eyes. The girl stared at him with concern, when suddenly her face lit up. "I'll be right back." Klavier watched her scurry away, and he resumed his crying for another few minutes. As soon as Klavier began to wonder if she was coming back, he heard someone talking.

"Klavier? What are you doing here?" Klavier perked up at the familiar voice, and raised his head until he was staring up into the piercing blue eyes of his brother. Kristoph sat down next to him, putting a hand on his knee.

"I ran away from school," Klavier mumbled, waiting for his brother to scold him. He was surprised to hear a gentle response.

"Why did you run away?"

"Some kids were making fun of me." Klavier rarely spoke about school, wishing to keep his mind on more positive topics when he could. He had never really spoken a word to his brother about the tormentors waiting for him there, and he wasn't surprised to see his brother's face contort with confusion and concern.

"Does this happen a lot?"

"I've never run away before, but they make fun of me a lot." Kristoph paused to think for a second.

"Will you go back to your school with me?" he asked, somewhat abruptly.

"I don't wanna go back!"

"It's ok. I won't let anyone say a single word to you."

"You promise?" Klavier's blue eyes widened with worry.

"I promise."

"Ok." Kristoph took his brother by the hand and walked him across the street. The bullies had gone to tell on him, Klavier assumed, because they were no longer growling at him from a distance like angry dogs on a chain. Kristoph let go of his hand, realizing that he didn't want to make the situation worse for his brother. The two walked in the front door of the school, and entered the office, which was filled with frantic women. When the women saw the visitors, they all sighed in unison.

"Klavier Gavin! You are in-"

"Please, may I speak with my brother's principal for a moment?" Kristoph interrupted. The secretary looked up at him in surprise.

"Did the entire Gavin family decide to skip school?"

"Ma'am, this is my off period. I wish to speak with his principal before I have to return for Algebra II."

"I suppose I can allow that." She pointed at a door, and Kristoph nudged his brother to go into the principal's office with him, the secretary still watching him carefully. The principal looked at the brothers angrily.

"Klavier Gavin! You have caused this school a-"

"Please, sir. May I explain why my brother felt compelled to leave the school?" _I shouldn't make interrupting adults a habit..._

"I suppose."

"From what he's told me- which isn't much- he's been abused by his peers both physically and verbally. He eventually was driven to run away from his bullies, and when they chased him to the edge of the road, he crossed it. I found him in a crying heap in front of the high school." Kristoph looked over at his brother, whose eyes had swelled with tears. "What exactly have the bullies done to you, Klavier?"

"If I tell the principal, they'll… They'll…"

"They won't do anything, Klavier," the principal interrupted. "Now please continue."

"Well… They always call me names, like Drill Bit and Glimmer Boy. And today they were telling me that I'm girly and I have no friends, and my hair doesn't work very well as a drill, and I should try digging with something made of metal instead. I tried to run away, but they grabbed my hair and they made fun of me more, and I escaped and they grabbed my shoulders and started smearing mud on me because brown is less girly than purple. And I ran away while they were laughing at me, and they were chasing me, and I didn't know where I was going… And then I stopped in front of the road, and they were still chasing me, so I crossed it. And then they were yelling mean things from across the street…" Klavier was sobbing at this point, to which Kristoph responded by holding his shoulder with one hand and running the other through his hair.

"It's ok, Klavier. They can't hurt you anymore." Kristoph coaxed.

"Who were the bullies?" The principal raised an eyebrow.

"I can't say that! Or… Or…"

"Klavier, they can't hurt you anymore. I won't let them." Kristoph's hand continued to glide through his brother's hair, a trick that could normally calm his brother in a matter of seconds.

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"A-Alex and D-Dil-lon…" Klavier choked out, crying even harder.

"Those two students are practically angels!" the principal gasped.

"Do you not believe my brother?"

"Those two have never so much as forgotten their homework, let alone bullied anyone."

"What reason would my brother possibly have to lie?!"

"He's going to be in a ridiculous amount of trouble for skipping school." Upon hearing this, Klavier pressed his face into his brother's shoulder, and his muffled sobs vibrated through Kristoph. _Ok, so he has a motive, sure. But I have conclusive evidence._

"Look at his jacket! There are muddy handprints, just as he said."

"And why couldn't he have put those on there?"

"His hands are too small. And mine are too big. It had to be a third person." Kristoph then pointed to the floor under Klavier. "It looks like some of his hair was ripped out, too." A noticeable number of light gold strands were now strewn across the floor, and more fell as Kristoph continued to comb his brother's hair gently with his fingers. "You aren't going to suggest that he ripped out his own hair to get someone in trouble!" Remembering more of his brother's 'testimony', Kristoph lightly tugged the collar of his jacket, uncovering four small bruises in the back of his shoulder. "There's even a handprint where he tes-claimed that he was grabbed. He obviously didn't harm himself, and the handprints suggest that the bully was just barely larger than him, so it must have happened at the school. I do hope you don't continue to claim that this child is faking all of this. On another note, wouldn't he be have been much more eager to point the blame towards another kid if he was faking? It took a lot of coaxing on my part to get him to say any names. Plus, he-"

"I've heard quite enough, Mr. Gavin." The principal looked thoughtfully at Klavier. "I'll admit, it seems that someone hurt him. But Alex and Dillon?"

"Well, who reported Klavier's absence?"

"I… Er… I don't know. If you'll excuse me, I'll check with the secretary." He left the room, and Kristoph turned to his brother.

"Klavier, you're being really brave."

"But I'm scared."

"Just because you're scared doesn't mean you aren't brave." Kristoph felt himself groan inside just saying the cliché line. "Being brave is about facing your fears. And that's what you're doing." Kristoph smiled, and he looked into his brother's eyes. The bright blue irises contrasted sharply with the puffy red edges of his eyes.

"I think I can be brave, then."

"I know you can." Kristoph's jacket was now permeated with the tears of his brother.

"It was Alex and Dillon," the principal reported suddenly, causing Kristoph to jump. "But this doesn't mean-"

"Who else do you suppose tried to hurt him?" Kristoph's annoyed face lit up slightly as an idea crossed his mind. "Klavier, who was the one who got mud on you?"

"D-Dillon."

"Let's see if Dillon's handprints match the stains. If they don't, I'll concede to the fact that my brother wasn't telling the truth. If they do, I believe that's conclusive enough evidence to convict him- err… It shows that Klavier was telling the truth." _You aren't a lawyer yet, Kristoph._

"I'll call him in, then. Although I don't believe they'll match. I've never seen a third grader with hands that large."

"All the better to prove that it could only be him," Kristoph replied with a smile. For the second time, the principal left the brothers alone.

"I'm not lying, Kristoph."

"I know you aren't. I'm just trying to prove it."

"Is this what lawyers do?"

"Well, kind of. I wasn't acting like a defense attorney, though, like Dad is. I was acting like a prosecutor."

"What do pross-heck-hutors do?"

"Defense attorneys try to prove that a criminal is innocent, and prosecutors try to prove that a criminal is guilty. For instance, I was using your jacket as evidence to prove that Alex and Dillon were guilty of bullying you. Since I was trying to prove them guilty, it makes me like prosecutor."

"I think I wanna be a pross-heck-hutor when I grow up." Kristoph let out a quiet laugh at his brother's words.

"I think you'd do great at that, Klavier." As he was speaking, the principal came back, with a young boy next to him.

"Can you put your hand up to the stain on Klavier's jacket, Dillon?"

"N-no! My hand… My hand'll get all dirty!"

"You can wash it, Dillon. Now please put your hand on the stain." Dillon obeyed, his hand shaking. _A perfect match._

"I- I can't believe this. Dillon, did you do this to Klavier?"

"N-no! Why would I have done that? I don't like getting my hands dirty!"

"Dillon, if you didn't do this, can you tell us who did?" Kristoph smiled. _I've never cross-examined a witness before._

"I didn't see! I just saw Klavier cross the street."

"How could you see Klavier cross the street? It's too far from the playground to tell." Kristoph remembered enough about his younger years to know that the nearest road to the Elementary school wasn't near at all.

"W-what?"

"You couldn't have seen Klavier cross the street unless you went with him… Like, for instance, if you had been chasing him. Now, why were you at the street?"

"I.. I... uhh..." Dillon finally broke out in tears. The young boy immediately confessed to everything, causing the principal to look at Kristoph in absolute shock throughout the revised testimony (as Kristoph would call it)

"Ah, look at the time. I only have five more minutes until Algebra II. I should really head out. I trust that you can handle it from here?" Kristoph looked at the principal with mock courtesy.

"I believe I can, Mr. Gavin." The principal's voice was stiff.

"Thank you. Klavier, if anything happens, tell a teacher to call my school, and I'll be right over. All right?"

"Ok, Kristoph. I'll be brave."

"I know you will."

Kristoph walked out of the principal's office smugly. He had won his first case.


	7. Chapter 7

So this is another long one. Sorry I haven't updated in a few days… :P

Just a warning: This chapter contains math (I know, I hate it too, but it made for a cute story). If you don't know what a polynomial is, it's probably for the best. Just ignore it and move on. I'm trying to imply that Kristoph is one year ahead of most of his classmates in math, putting him in PDM for his junior year. So if there's things mentioned that aren't actually in PDM… I'm not in PDM yet, and I'm just trusting my older brother XP

Well, enjoy math hatred! :D

Wait. I've changed the description of this, so go check it for news. Now. If you haven't already. Ok, now you can enjoy math hatred :P

(O)

Kristoph ducked under the roof of his porch, dripping with rainwater. The upperclassman stopped for a minute to recover from the desperate sprint he had just completed, and opened the door to his house. He let his thoughts drift back to the books in his bag, feeling exhausted. He knew that his teachers must have been plotting together in order to assign him three projects, four tests, and six hours worth of other homework for one Thursday night. _It's ok… Just start with your law homework. That's not too bad. _His plans for the night were interrupted by the voice of his brother.

"Stupid math!" _Seems like I'm not the only one having a miserable time with school._

"Klavier, I'm home."

"I don't care! Gahhh!"

"Do you need help?"

"No! This math is just stupid." Kristoph walked up behind his brother. He looked to see his brother staring angrily at a math worksheet, his paper ripped in spots by what looked to be heavy erasing.

"Long division, huh? You know, I'm in high school and I'm learning about that." _Although my long division involves polynomials and factoring…_

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's hard, isn't it?"

"Uh huh."

"Here, how about I help you?" Klavier sighed, and looked at his homework intently as his brother's long fingers brushed gently over the top. "Ok. If you look at the big number on the inside, and the small one on the outside…" Kristoph painstakingly explained all of the complicated steps to his brother, until the sixth grader could finish his homework with ease.

"Do you get it?" Kristoph let out a sigh of relief as his little brother nodded. "Then I'm going to go work on my own homework now. Please don't bother me unless it's really important- I have a lot of work to do." _I might need to pull another overnighter just to finish all of it… But I don't want to give Klavier any ideas. _

"Can I help?" Kristoph blinked.

"Klavier, I have grown up homework. I don't think you could help me with it."

"Well, what do you have?" Kristoph thought for a moment. He really wasn't in the mood to do any more math, so he ruled that out for now. He thought of his Law homework, trying not to groan.

"I have to write a paper on what I think is the least effective legal system currently in use in foreign countries. And it has to be six pages," Kristoph groaned. "Right now I've got four, and I can't think of anything else to write." When he had been first assigned the project, Kristoph assumed he could write at least 20 pages about his hatred for the Jurist System in particular, but once he had started, each page felt agonizingly long.

"I can help with that!" Klavier grinned. _What does he know about the Jurist system? _"Is it on the computer?"

"Yeah." Kristoph pulled up his document, already feeling tired.

"It has to be 12 point Times New Roman? Double space?" _If he already knows what all that is, I have to wonder what they're making him do in school…_

"Yeah."

"I don't know much about lee gall systems, but I know how to fill pages!" Klavier spouted joyfully. He pressed _ctrl h _and Kristoph watched a box pop up on the screen. _Find and replace:_ Klavier eagerly poked a few buttons, and when he had finished, his paper was suddenly half a page longer.

"How did you do that?!"

"I made all the periods bigger. Nobody'll notice, but it makes your paper a lot longer!" Klavier practically sang. "Oh. And I have another trick." Kristoph watched in awe as another half of a page was magically added to his paper. "Do you not know about margins, Kristoph? I thought you were a big high schooler!" Klavier laughed.

"…Wow. I only have one more page to write now. Thanks, Klavier. That would have taken me half an hour."

"Welcome! Well, I'm gonna leave you alone now. I don't think I can make your pages any longer."

"Thanks." Kristoph was left to sit alone. He stared at his paper for a second, in complete awe. _Have all of my classmates been doing this all this time, and I didn't know about it?_ Kristoph finished his paper after another 45 minutes, letting out a sigh of relief when he saved the document and pressed the print button. _Now I just have Math… And English… And German… And History… Ugh... I guess I'll do my German project first… I don't want to write another paper as long as I live, and I'm sick of Math too. _Kristoph felt a wave of stress flood him, knowing that he would have to do it all anyways. _At least when I write my essay for English I'll be too tired to be in pain… _

Kristoph pulled out his German binder, and he realized that, predictably, he had to write another paper. In German, no less. He threw his binder across the room, feeling somewhat pleased as it hit the wall, papers scattering. He looked down at the rest of his homework, reluctantly pulling out a math textbook. As he opened it up, he found himself unable to see. He heard a scream from upstairs. "Kristoph! I-It's dark! Turn the l-lights back on, you aren't gonna sc-care me!" _Your voice tells me otherwise… _

"It's a powerout, Klavier," he yelled. He pulled out his phone, and used it as a flashlight as he stumbled over to look out the window. He was shocked to see trees bending under the weight of the wind and rain, to the point that branches were snapping off and sliding down the street. He looked at his phone, finger sliding across the screen, only to make contact with a weather app. He waited impatiently as it loaded.

"Kristoph! You aren't gonna leave me up here in the dark, are you?! _Oh, right…_

"I'll be up in a minute!" Kristoph watched his phone continue to load, realizing that his wi-fi was probably out. _And this is why I wanted 3g, Dad… _Kristoph walked up the stairs carefully, not wanting to trip on anything. He turned Klavier's doorknob, and walked into the pitch-black room. "I'm here, Klavier." His brother was peering out the window, trembling.

"Is this a tornado?" _That's what I was trying to check… _He wanted to calm down his brother, but he knew that saying 'no, we're perfectly safe, now get in the basement before we both die' wouldn't go over very well.

"I don't know, Klavier. Just to be safe, we should go in the basement. But we're safe for right now, ok? Don't worry."

The nine-year-old grabbed his brother's hand, practically on top of him as Kristoph guided his trembling brother to the basement.

"I don't wanna die."

"Klavier, we aren't going to die." Kristoph was actually beginning to have his own doubts, but he knew that he had to stay cool and collected or the basement would be filled with ear-splitting wails.

"Promise?" Klavier looked up at him innocently. _He really should stop saying that. It was kind of cute when he was five, but…_

"I promise." He felt his brother relax a little bit (Klavier was still pressed firmly up against him). "Now, can we sit down?"

"Do we have to put our hands over our necks? Like during a tornado drill?"

"No, Klavier," his brother said with a short laugh. "We're safer here than you'd be at school. I just want to stop standing."

"Ok." Kristoph sat down in a comfortable chair, and his brother snuggled up half on and half next to him. They sat in silence for a while, listening to the faint sound of wind whipping around outside. Kristoph felt his brother's trembling begin to fade, until he could hear faint snoring in his ear. He smiled, trying to make out his brother's sleeping face in the dark. At that moment, the lights switched on with a beep.

"AHHH! WE'RE GONNA DIE!" His brother attempted to jump off the couch, but didn't quite make it, slipping back onto Kristoph's lap.

"Klavier, the lights are back on. Nothing else happened."

"Oh." His brother rubbed his sleepy eyes. _Can I check the weather now? _Kristoph opened his weather app, which had finally decided to work.

**_SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES: KERN. LOS ANGELES. ORANGE. SAN BERNARDINO…_**

**_TORNADO WATCH IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES: KERN. LOS ANGELES. ORANGE…_**

"It doesn't look like there was a real tornado. Just some really strong winds." Kristoph saw something else on the page.

**_SOME SCHOOL DISTRICTS HAVE CLOSED DUE TO POWER-OUTAGES AND BLOCKED ROADS: BASSET. COMPOUND. GLENDORA… _**

Kristoph watched the names slowly scroll by, and grinned.

"Klavier. I have good news. There's no school tomorrow."

"WHAAAAT?!" The little boy looked shocked at first, but the expression slowly began to dissolve into joy.

"Apparently the roads are blocked by fallen trees, and there's some power-outages, too."

"How does a power-out block the road?" It took Kristoph a moment to wonder what the heck was going through the blond's head.

"I mean that some of the schools closed because they had no electricity, and other schools closed because there were trees in the road."

"Oh." Klavier smiled shyly. "Does this mean that you don't have to do anymore homework?"

"Hmm? Oh… You're right!" Kristoph felt overwhelmed with relief as his brother's words sunk in. "And tomorrow's a Friday… So I have all weekend!" Kristoph grinned.

"So I can bother you now? Yay!" Klavier wrapped his little arms around Kristoph, who jumped in surprise. The high-schooler sighed.

"Do you want to watch some CSI?"

"Yeah." The sixth grader stretched to rest his head on his brother's shoulder, causing Kristoph to slouch just enough for both of them to be comfortable. Before the plot had picked up, however, Klavier was asleep again. Kristoph picked up the remote cautiously, trying not to move too much. He turned the power off, and watched his sleeping brother for the second time, but now in full light.

"Sleep well," he smiled, his eyelids feeling unusually heavy.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys! So I finally decided to put a cap on the number of stories I'm planning on doing- 20. And the grand finale'll be Klavier and Kristoph meeting after the Misham trial. So I'm just gonna do 12 more after this… I don't want it to ramble on too long. (Like this author's note… XD)

I went back and changed a lot of the ages from the past stories, because it clicked in my head that 17 year old Prosecutor Gavin had to have skipped some grades. For the sake of this story, he skipped 1st and 4th. Keep that in mind, I guess. Sorry for being ridiculously confusing XP

It's ok though, because this story's actually a reasonable length, unlike the last three. Well, I hope you enjoy! :D

(O)

Kristoph sat in his bed, reading a book he had picked up from the library. He wasn't into fiction much, but Lucas had insisted on him reading it, and he had to admit that it was well written for a book about magic spells and wizard children.

"K-Kristoph?"

"Klavier, I put you to bed an hour ago. What are you still doing up?"

"I had a nightmare." Klavier looked at his feet sadly.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"It wasn't that interesting, it was just scary. There was this giant spider, and it was crawling around me in circles, and then it started to spit out silk, and it wrapped around me and I couldn't move… And then the spider became a human, and it had a gun, and… And… It put the gun up to my head, and I was screaming, and I heard a really loud noise, and everything turned red, and…" The kindergartener's eyes filled with tears. _If this dream isn't interesting, I don't want to hear about his other dreams…_

"It's ok, Klavier. There aren't any spiders that big anywhere on earth."

"I know, but… But what about the man with the gun? Those exist in real life."

"Klavier, come on over here." He patted the area on his bed next to him, and the young boy obediently climbed up onto the bed. "You know how Dad defends criminals, right?"

"Uh huh."

"One of the most important parts of defending a criminal is knowing the motive."

"What's a motive?"

"A motive is the reason why someone committed a crime. So a poor person would have a better reason to rob a bank than a rich person would. With murders, you almost always need a motive to send someone to jail. Klavier, nobody's going to kill you, because nobody has a motive."

"I accidentally tipped over my teacher's drink today. Is that a motive?" Kristoph laughed.

"No. If you were drinking something really good- like a chocolate milkshake- and I spilled it, would you want to kill me?"

"You're my brother! I can't kill you."

"Would you kill someone else over spilled milkshake?!"

"No. Unless a murderer was trying to poison me and I tried to share my drink with someone without knowing there was poison in it, and-"

"Klavier. Nobody would try and poison your drink. Everyone loves you."

"Do you love me?" Kristoph was caught off guard by the sincerity of the kindergartener's question.

"I mean, yeah." Klavier smiled.

"I love you, too."

"Will you go to sleep now?"

"I'm too scared still." Klavier thought for a second. "Maybe you could tell me a happy story, so I think about that when I go to bed instead of spiders and murderers."

"I'm not a very good storyteller."

"I think you are. And I think anything's better than spider murderers."

"True. Hmm… Let me think for a second…" _What can I talk about that isn't scary?! I doubt he wants to hear something about rainbows and unicorns… Or cannibals and chainsaw murderers… _

"Once upon a time, there were… Umm… You know what? I'm just going to read you a book. I don't think I can come up with a good story."

"I don't want you to read a story. I want you to make one up."

"Err… All right… Um… Once upon a time, there was… Uh… A duck." _Ducks are cute, right? And not nightmare material?_

"I like ducks."

"Yeah. So the duck… Um… The duck was waddling around, and it realized that it was really, really hungry. The duck decided to look for something to eat, and it saw its favorite food hanging in a tree- apples."

"Ducks don't eat apples."

"Well… This duck did. So it decided to try and get the apples out of the tree. It tried flying, but it was so hungry, it couldn't fly high enough to get the apple. The duck tried jumping, but it was too short. It walked around the tree, and it saw a big metal thing- a ladder. But ducks don't know what ladders do, so it kept on trying to jump and get the apples."

"Stupid duck."

"Yeah. It was really stupid. Eventually, there was a human who came to the tree. The human climbed up the ladder, and grabbed some of the apples from off the tree, and then it came back down. The duck decided to follow the human, because it really wanted some apples. It waddled around, following the human, until it got to the human's house. The human didn't know that the duck was there, though."

"Stupid human."

"The duck followed the human into the house, and the human left the apples on a table. The duck jumped up onto a chair, and ate all of the apples. Then, the human saw the duck, and…" _Wait. I can't let the duck die, or Klavier's going to cry. _"the human started chasing the duck. The duck started running away, but its legs were really short, and ducks don't run very well."

"Stupid duck."

"Yeah. But then, the duck realized that, since it wasn't hungry anymore, it could fly. So it started flying through the human's house, and it found that the human had left a window open, and it flew outside the house."

"Stupid human." The child's reply was more of a murmur this time, and Kristoph realized he was almost asleep.

"Yeah, the human was really stupid. The duck flew out the window, and kept flying for a very, very long time. When it landed, it realized that it was really hungry. And then it saw an apple tree. And it started jumping, trying to get the apples off the tree."

"Stupid duck." Klavier's eyes were closed, and Kristoph felt him go limp next to him within a matter of seconds. He heard faint snoring, and smiled.

_Wait. Where am I supposed to sleep?!_

_(O)_

_**A/N: **I hope you guys realize that I could have come up with a much better story for Kristoph to tell than this. I just couldn't resist having Kristoph be a horrible storyteller XD_


	9. Chapter 9

Woahhhhh 1000 views? I feel so cool. But really, thanks for all of the support and reviews I've gotten, I really appreciate them. Well, the next two stories are going to be one-and-a-half shots, if you know what I mean. They're connected, but could stand alone.

Oh, yes. Klavier's a bit older in this one than in the other ones I've done- this is in the summer between 5th and 6th grade. (Considering the grade skipping, he's still only 8, though). Don't be surprised by smart Klavier, basically.

Well, enjoy! :D

(O)

Sundays were always a change of pace in the Gavin household. Klavier loved it, and anxiously waited for it. Kristoph hated it, and anxiously dreaded it. Sundays were the only day of the week when Kolton Gavin, their father, took off working as a lawyer. Klavier absolutely adored spending the time with his dad, although Kristoph felt uneasy with how willing his younger brother was to trust someone who cared about him so little. The day normally began with them heading off to church- the family couldn't be called religious, but their mother had been, and they kept up the tradition. Klavier was the only one who didn't seem to dread it, as he enjoyed spending time with kids his age (the ones at John Jay Elementary being an exception, of course). When they got home, Kristoph would head to his room as the usual… interrogation began. Today was no different.

"Dad, how do they make paper?"

"Dad, what's luminol?"

"Dad, can me and Kristoph watch one of your trials?"

"Excuse me?" Mr. Gavin looked up from his newspaper.

"Well… Kristoph's gonna be taking law after the summer's over, and I'm almost in middle school, so I think I'm big enough."

"Maybe Kristoph, if he would ask himself. But I don't believe that you're mature enough to handle seeing things like blood and corpses."

"I'm not a baby, Dad."

"Klavier, you're eight years old."

"My ninth birthday's in two weeks!" he protested. "And I can handle it. I watch CSI with Kris all the time, and I'm not even scared at all!" _I'm glad I didn't tell on Kristoph for locking me in the closet that one time…_

"Even if you could handle it- which I don't think you could- trials aren't meant for children. You can't be too loud, and you couldn't pester your brother."

"I wouldn't. I'd be really quiet."

"Why do you want to watch a trial so badly?"

"Because you're a lawyer, and Kristoph wants to be a lawyer. If trials are important to the people that I spend time with, then I want to see one so I can understand them better. And I could see if I wanted to be one, too."

"I see wisdom in that. But I still don't see you as mature enough to sit through a trial."

"Dad, Klavier's wiser than you make him out to be." Kristoph stood in the doorway to the living room, holding the wall with one hand.

"Kris?" Klavier stared at his brother in surprise. His father opened his mouth to argue with Kristoph, but thought better of it.

"Klavier, I'd like to speak to your brother alone, please."

"You aren't seriously going to send him off to wonder what we're saying about him, are you?" Kristoph looked… Angry. Klavier was scared. He hadn't ever seen Kristoph this angry, ever. "He isn't the little kid you think he is. Sure, he asks you a **lot **of questions. But if he didn't, you wouldn't even speak to him. You can't blame him for trying to make conversation with his own father."

"Kristoph, I've heard enough of your disrespect." Kristoph walked over to his brother and sat next to him, ignoring the lawyer.

"I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I'm trying to protect my brother."

"I'm not hurting him."

"He holds on to every word you say as the complete truth. I won't let you tell him that he's small and insignificant."

"I told him that he wasn't old enough to sit through a trial. Don't you agree with that?"

"You told him that he was an eight-year-old kid who couldn't handle real life. And that he wasn't old enough to sit through a trial without being annoying and loud. I think he's perfectly capable of that. You would too, if you actually spent time with your own son."

"Klavier is-"

"Stop! Please… I'd rather stay home from the trial than hear you fight about me. Just please, stop fighting." Klavier's voice started as a shout, decreasing in volume until his cries were barely audible.

"Hmph. It seems like he's more mature than me," Kristoph smiled. "I'll be in my room." With that, the high-schooler turned around and headed for the stairs.

"Wait. I have a trial tomorrow. You may both go."

"Oh. Thanks, I guess." Klavier clearly felt torn between his brother and his father, eventually choosing his brother, and running up the stairs after him.

"Kristoph?" The almost-nine-year-old poked his head into Kristoph's room.

"Yes?" His brother's expression was unreadable.

"You didn't need to fight him for me."

"I want to be a defense attorney. It's what I do. Plus, I don't want to…" He trailed off.

"What?"

"I don't want to see your feelings get hurt."

"Why do you hate him?"

"Klavier, he doesn't care about us."

"He works all the time to give us money!"

"We don't need money. If he worked half as much as he did, we'd be fine. He just doesn't care, Klavier."

"Well… I care."

"I know you do. But he doesn't." There was an awkward pause. "Sorry if I ruined your Sunday. I know you like those."

"No, it's ok. At least we get to see a trial tomorrow."

"I do want to watch a trial," Kristoph admitted.

"I have a question."

"I might have an answer."

"Why do you want to be a defense lawyer if you don't like Dad?"

"Because I like law, and if I was anything but a defense attorney, I'd probably end up working with him on cases."

"Why do you like law, though?"

"It's always changing. With math, one plus one always equals two. With law, one plus one could equal four if you had enough evidence. I don't like feeling like I can't change something if I have to."

"It would take a lot of evidence to make one plus one equal four."

"Yeah, I think you're right."


	10. Chapter 10

Woah, I'm half done! Hmm. I don't know how I feel about this one, though... This is part 2 of my one-and-a-half shot, so yeah. There's a trial. Trials are kinda hard to do on fanfiction… I don't think this one is particularly terrible, but it's no suspenseful turnabout and it's somewhat vague. I still like the plot, though, (it's not focused on the trial, but on the brothers' reactions to it) and I hope you will too :)

(O)

Klavier's excitement couldn't be hidden. Even with the pained feelings surrounding his father's agreement, Klavier couldn't be happier.

"I can't believe we get to watch Daddy's trial!"

"Err… Klavier? When you say Daddy's trial, you make it sound like he's the defendant."

"Oh. Oops." The mistake didn't keep Klavier's attention for long as the large building came into view. It towered over them, almost menacingly, but the same raw power that caught the child's attention also demonstrated the strength found in the truth. Kristoph seemed to be admiring it in the same way.

"The court house is right over there. We're on time, too."

(O)

Kristoph and Klavier had found their seats in the gallery. Kristoph peered over the edge, his father in full view. An older man sat at the prosecutor's bench. He looked angry, to put it simply.

"You see the man over at the prosecutor's bench?"

"Yeah. He looks scary."

"His name is Prosecutor Von Karma."

"His first name is Prosecutor?!"

"What? No…! Never mind."

"Ok."

Kristoph watched as the judge took his place at the top of the courtroom. Despite the need to show him respect, Kristoph wondered why he had to tower over everyone- from such a distance, the old judges couldn't see anything very well, he assumed.

"Court is now in session for the trial of Lawrence Sedin."

"The defense is ready, Your Honor." The cool sound of his father's voice sent chills up his spine. He had to admit, he did seem kind of cool at the defense bench."

"And Prosecutor Von Karma? Is the prosecution ready?"

"I've been standing here waiting for a while. I do believe this points to the conclusion that I am prepared."

"O-of course. My apologies. Prosecutor Von Karma, your opening statement, please."

"Everything in this case is completely decisive. Lawrence Sedin murdered his wife when she got home from work. I call Detective Gumshoe to the stand."

"Of course, sir." The judge looked terrified.

Kristoph blinked. Von Karma was running the entire court! He might as well pass the verdict, too.

"Testify. Now," the prosecutor barked at the scraggly detective who was at the stand, shaking. _What is the judge here for, anyways?_

"Yessir! The defendant is clearly guilty," _Whatever happened to stating your name and occupation?! _"You see, the victim, Lucy Sedin, was found in her car, strangled! The key was left in the ignition, but it didn't have her prints- only her husband's! Lawrence must have strangled her, and put her in the car to make it look like a murder. Only he forgot to wipe his fingerprints!" The detective was shaking at the sight of the irritated prosecutor. "A-and I almost forgot about the motive. There were three witnesses to a fight that they had gotten into outside earlier that day. Talk about a solid motive, pal!"

"I believe we've heard enough. Your verdict please, Your Honor." The prosecutor grinned evilly.

"Objection! The defense wishes to cross-examine the witness."

"I'll allow that." The prosecutor smirked.

"Kristoph? Why isn't the judge doing anything?" He was surprised to see inquisitive blue eyes meeting his.

"I think he's scared."

"But doesn't he have more power than the Von Karma guy?"

"Yeah, but I don't think he realizes it."

"Huh." The brothers turned to watch the trial. In short, the cross-examination was unsuccessful. Every word their father said was quickly shot down, even if there was a significant amount of logic behind it.

"I see no need to prolong this trial, Your Honor. Please hand down your verdict. The prosecution has presented a motive, an opportunity, and decisive evidence, none of which the defense appears able to refute."

"But Kristoph! He's innocent! It's obviously the neighbor guy… Mr. Wiley."

"Wilett, not Wiley. I agree, but it doesn't seem like Dad has the evidence to back it up."

"Well, the motive's pretty obvious. He was her ex-husband, and she moved across the street just to show off her new husband. And he doesn't have an alibi, so there's the opportunity."

"But he just doesn't have _evidence_." Kristoph finished.

"Yeah he does! Why didn't they check the car door? There should be fingerprints on the handle, or at least traces of latex." Kristoph blinked. Had his brother just said what he thought he said? _That makes perfect sense. The prosecution's just hiding the evidence!_ Kristoph watched his father squirm in discontent as he considered the idea that his eight-year-old brother had outsmarted his father in his own line of work. He smirked. He looked at his brother, who was writing on a piece of paper. _**Check the car door. **_

"Are you going to throw that at him? He'll be really mad."

"I think he'd be more mad if he lost."

"I dunno… You might as well. If he lost, he couldn't be mad at you for trying to help, especially if you were right." With that, a crumpled up ball of paper flew out of the gallery and under the defense bench. Kristoph's father looked up with a bitter glare, and redirected it back to Von Karma, crushing the ball under his foot. "Klavier, we should leave. Now."

"Ok." The brothers began to walk out of the room just as the verdict was being announced.

"This court finds the defendant, Lawrence Sedin…"

GUILTY

(O)

"Why on earth would you possibly throw a wad of paper at me during a trial?!" Their father was absolutely furious. Klavier mumbled something in quiet shame.

"You were losing, and Klavier thought of a lead you would have found quite valuable."

"An eight-year-old boy-"

"Is a prodigy." Klavier looked at his brother in shock. Kristoph wasn't one to give him much praise, and when he did, it felt valuable. These last two days had left Klavier in absolute shock. "You know, didn't it seem strange that Von Karma used the fingerprints on the keys as evidence?"

"Not in the least. It was decisive evidence."

"I wasn't finished. If the killer had left prints on the keys, wouldn't they have left prints on the car door as well? It seems like having your fingerprints on the scene of the crime is much more incriminating than having your fingerprints on a piece of evidence at the scene of the crime, yes?" Their father's expression was priceless. "Come on, Klavier. I'm going upstairs."

"I'm coming."

Kolton Gavin stared at the ground for a very long time.


	11. Chapter 11

Whoo, another one-and-a-half shot! I probably won't do any more of these, but I HAD to do it again. *insert Klavier's whiny voice*. But yeah, cool. I'm really happy with all of the attention this is getting, as I've said before. Thanks for all the reviews especially- they make me feel good about myself lol. Well, enjoy! :D

(O)

Kristoph was very creative. If there was a problem, he always seemed to be able to find the most effective solution possible. Kristoph had come home one morning to find Klavier shoveling snow, looking for his house key. Kristoph, however, had gone inside, found a metal detector, and, when that failed, resorted to using a hair dryer on an extension cord. Yes, Kristoph could always find a solution- heaven forbid he ever had a more malevolent problem in need of solving- but artistically, a rock would probably be considered more creative. Klavier, unfortunately, had failed to notice this.

"Kristoph? I need help."

"What is it? I'm a little busy right now." _Because looking up mental disorders on Wikipedia is hard work…I think Senioritis has begun to kick in._

"Oh… I don't want to bother you… You can help me later, if you finish what you're doing."

"Well, I'd like it if you told me what you needed before 'later'."

"Well, umm… You know how I started that band with some kids from school, right?" Even though Klavier WAS in middle school, it had seemed strange to Kristoph that a 10-year-old would be interested in joining a band. However, the 7th grader was a great musician, Kristoph had to admit, and if he had some friends who could accompany him, he certainly didn't mind.

"Yeah, I remember you saying that."

"Well, we were gonna have a concert for our school. But we didn't have any songs, so we thought that if everyone wrote one, we would have enough. But I don't really know how to write songs…"

"It can't be that bad, can it? All you have to do is find words that rhyme, and put them at the end of sentences."

"I guess. But can you still help me?"

"All right. What's the song supposed to be about?"

"They didn't say. Something cool, I guess? I don't wanna write about love, though. Even if everyone else in middle school has gotten over it, I can't shake the idea that girls have cooties." They both laughed at that, and as soon as the laughter began to die down, they met each others' eyes and burst out laughing all over again.

"That's probably for the best. You could write a song about music."

"A lot of people have done that, though." He thought for a second. "I could write about my guitar, though."

"That might work. Just find some rhymes on Google." Klavier pulled out an iphone, and went onto Google.

"There's strings and brings. I could probably do something with that. Oh, and rock-star and guitar."

"Here, write that down."

_**Rock-Star**_

_**Guitar**_

_**Strings**_

_**Brings**_

"Ok, I did."

"Now fill in the sentences."

"Umm… I don't know. I don't really want to be a rock-star." Klavier tapped the pencil on his chin, deep in thought.

"Then write that. That might work."

"Umm… Ok." Klavier scribbled onto the paper, somewhat confused.

_**I don't really want to be a rock star,**_

"Here, try changing it just a little bit, just to fit the song more."

_**I **_**never**_** really **_**wanted**_** to be a rock star,**_

"My handwriting looks prettier than yours," Klavier laughed.

"Well, you can read mine better, and that's what's important," Kristoph rebutted. Klavier stuck his tongue out.

"Now what?"

"Just write something that ends with guitar! Is it that hard?" _I hope he's better at this than I am…_

"Yeah!" Klavier looked at the paper, wondering what to write.

_**I **_**never**_** really **_**wanted**_** to be a rock star,**_

_**But as I sit and strum on my guitar,**_

"Hmm… Do you think you could add two syllables?" Receiving a blank stare, he made a few edits.

_**I **_**never**_** really **_**wanted**_** to be a rock star,**_

_**But as I sit and strum on my**_** favorite guitar,**

"There." Kristoph smiled slightly.

"It's not really my favorite… You can't have a favorite when there's only one."

"Well, there's nothing you'd rather play, right? Just do it for the song," he urged.

"Fine. What comes next?" Klavier mumbled, reluctantly.

"I'm not the one writing the song!" Kristoph scoffed.

"You can do one line, right?" _It's just twelve syllables. Your brother isn't smarter than you in any way, Kristoph. _

_**I **_**never**_** really **_**wanted**_** to be a rock star,**_

_**But as I sit and strum on my **_****favorite guitar,****

**My fingers glide from string to string,**

"Grr. It's not long enough." _This is a lot harder than I thought it was._

"Oh! What if we used 'sing' instead of string?" Klavier smiled, though lost in thought.

"My fingers glide from sing to sing?!"

"No. Just scratch out the whole line." _Was it that bad?"_

_**I **_**never**_** really **_**wanted**_** to be a rock star,**_

_**But as I sit and strum on my**_** **favorite guitar,****

_**I can feel the music and my heart starts to sing,**_

"Oh. That sounds really good, actually." Kristoph had already decided that his brother was a much better songwriter.

"It does? Thanks." Klavier smiled brightly. "And for the last line… Hmm."

_**I **_**never**_** really **_**wanted**_** to be a rock star,**_

_**But as I sit and strum on my**_****favorite guitar,****

_**I can feel the music and my heart starts to sing,**_

_**I can feel the joy it would bring.**_

"I like how it sounds, but it's not long enough," Klavier mused.

"If it's at the end of the first verse, it can be different from the others. You should keep it."

"Oh, yeah… This is only the first verse," Klavier moaned. _Why is he complaining? He has absolutely no right to complain when he dragged me into this…_

The brothers spent the next hour and a half tweaking the song, and at long last, they were done.

"This is so cool! Michael's gonna love this."

"Oh, is he your band mate?"

"Yeah. It's me, Michael, Jake, and Tyler. I'm on guitar, Michael's singing, Jake plays bass, and Tyler plays drums. Michael's kinda the leader, so we named the band after his last name- we're the Falloners."

"Hmm. I think Gavinners sounds better," Kristoph grinned, and Klavier laughed.

"But Michael's got a lot more friends than I do. Everyone would want to see the band named after the most popular kid in school."

"I'd still rather see the Gavinners."

"Are you going to watch us?" Klavier asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I think I will. I want to see how much they drag you down," Kristoph grinned, although somewhat serious. "Where is it?"

"Umm… I was actually going to ask if you'd let us do it here. None of the other guys could do it at their house, and Dad always sleeps at the office the day before a trial, and he's got a trial in two days, on a Saturday. So we could have a Friday night concert."

"I don't care, as long as there isn't drugs or drunk teenagers in this house."

"Gosh, Kristoph, you sound like Dad. But it's ok?"

"Sure. Dad will never know," Kristoph grinned.

(O)

Cool! So I will have the finished song next chapter, don't get too excited about it, though XD

**I've noticed Kristoph getting softer and softer the more I write… The first episode he's a total jerk, but now he's letting Klavier throw a party in the house without so much as an objection. Sorry about that, you're just gonna have to deal with it XP**


	12. Chapter 12

Part 2 of 1½! So I'll be on vacation this weekend… I have one story for Valentine's Day, (but it won't be sappy, I've had enough of that after chapter 2 XP) but then I won't really be posting much because I'll be at a waterpark (even though I'm scared of water XP) with no wi-fi.

Oh, and Klavier's pretty old here, if you didn't pick that up. He's 10 and Kristoph's 18- Klavier's in middle school, and if you didn't pick up THAT part click that little button in the top right and click chapter 11 XP

(O)

"Klavier, do you think you could sing the song you wrote? Your voice was pretty good from what I remember, and I don't want to lose my voice from singing too much."

"Yeah, sure. I- I could do that."

"_Cool. So we're going to do it at your house tonight? How much room do you have?"_

"Our biggest room would hold a hundred people at the most."

"Perfect. Well, see you then."

"See you, Michael."

Klavier hung up the phone. _Me? Sing in front of people? Guitar's one thing, but I don't know about singing…_

Klavier walked over to the fridge, looking for something to drink. _Oh wait. I shouldn't have dairy products, it might mess up my voice._ He wasn't quite sure how he had figured this out, but the strange fact lingered in his mind, and he pulled out a pitcher of grape juice instead.

"Klavier, are you ready for tonight?" Klavier looked up from pouring his juice, causing him to spatter a few drops on the counter. His brother looked up at him with sharp blue eyes.

"Oops. Yeah, I think so. But I have to sing, and I'm scared."

"Oh. I don't think I've ever heard you sing before," Kristoph mused, handing his brother a napkin. "But I think you'll be fine."

"Thanks, I guess."

(O)

There were 75 people in his house. Klavier felt terrified. _What if I embarrass myself? There'll be nowhere to go if I leave! What if Dad comes home? What if the house is completely trashed? What if I mess up onstage and make the band really mad at me? _

"Klavier, we're getting ready to start!" A voice, probably Jake's, called him. He grabbed his guitar and climbed nervously onstage, which was really just a big table with a black tablecloth.

"Klavier, don't worry." Blue eyes met him steadily. "You'll do great."

"Thanks, Kristoph." His brother nodded and slipped into the corner of the room, clearly annoyed by the abundance of middle schoolers, but still wanting to watch his brother.

"Thanks for coming, guys! Each of us wrote a song for tonight, so I'm going to sing mine, Jake's, and Tyler's, and then Klavier's gonna sing the one he wrote himself." Confused murmurs filled the room, and Klavier desperately tried not to shake in fear, as the eyes of 75 people were on him. However, seeing a pair of kind blue eyes in the background gave him a small boost of confidence.

Michael started singing, and Klavier's fingers moved naturally with the rhythm, providing harmony to his friend's voice. This went on for three songs, and by the end, Klavier's fear had melted into the song. Now, as he realized that he had to sing, all of the fear froze again. He took a deep breath, and began to sing.

**_I never really wanted to be a rock star,_**

**_But as I sit and strum on my favorite guitar,_**

**_I can feel the music and my heart starts to sing,_**

**_I can feel the joy it would bring._**

I feel the beat, I hear the sound

_**Of the excitement from the roaring crowd**_

_**My heart races, my fingers glide**_

_**Across the strings, making music tonight**_

_**I'm not a rock star, but I can play**_

_**I can make music anyways**_

_**I'm not a rock star but that's ok**_

_**Because with music I will find a way**_

_**Yeah I will find a way.**_

Klavier looked out to see people… Enjoying the song? He had been bracing himself for tomatoes, but this was unexpected. He brightened up a bit, and continued.

I never really wanted to be a rock star

_**I saw all those musicians take it much too far**_

_**I don't play guitar to make my life confusing **_

_**I play guitar to make music**_

I feel the beat, I hear the sound

_**Of the excitement from the roaring crowd**_

(which at this point were actually somewhat excited)

_**My heart races, my fingers glide**_

_**Across the strings, making music tonight**_

_**I'm not a rock star, but I can play**_

_**I can make music anyways**_

_**I'm not a rock star but that's ok**_

_**Because with music I will find a way**_

_**Yeah I will find a way.**_

_**I will find…. A way.**_

Klavier left his last chord ringing, letting the sound of it envelop him. Other seemed to catch on and do the same, but when it began to die, the room erupted in applause. _I'm not that good at singing, am I?_

His friend stepped up to take the mic. "I think I just got waaay outdone." A few snickers filled the room, and everyone smiled at Klavier. "We just wanted to save the best for last, huh?" Klavier appreciated the attention, but there was only one person he really wanted to approve of his music. He looked to his brother, who nodded his head.

Klavier had never felt so happy.

Whooo I'm done! Sorry about that song, though… I'm not exactly a song writer XD

**I was thinking about having Kolton walk in at the end, but I'm not that mean to poor happy Klavier. I want this to be as a turning point where Klavier starts becoming a glimmerous fop lol. **


	13. Chapter 13

Hmm. Sappier than I promised in the last note, but not in a romantic way. I like this, it's cute :3

Well, this is gonna be my last post for a few days, I'm going on vacation to a place with no wi-fi *cringes*. So enjoy this story :P

(O)

"Well, it seems like your right arm is sprained. You'll just have to keep it in a sling for a week, but after that it should be fine."

Kristoph was feeling pretty guilty at this point. He was just trying to scare his brother, not cause him to fall down the stairs… Klavier looked up at the nurse and smiled, but the 2nd grader's red puffy eyes still showed how much he had been crying. Kristoph thanked the woman, and led his younger brother out the door. _It's pathetic how my father wouldn't even leave work when his own child was in the hospital…_

"Are you feeling any better?" His younger brother was shivering from the cold air, and Kristoph sped up a bit in order to warm up his brother. They had a relatively long walk back home, and Kristoph couldn't think of a better way to keep the child warm.

"Yeah, I guess. But how am I supposed to write?" he whined.

"You either have to use your left hand, or get someone to write for you."

"Well, my homework is a lot of writing…" _How much writing do they make a six-year-old do? Three sentences? At least he doesn't have to write a paper when he gets home…_

"How much is a lot?"

"It's Valentine's day tomorrow. I have to fill out all the valentines." Kristoph tried as hard as he could not to groan.

"So I would assume that you want me to help you with that?"

"Yeah." Klavier looked up at him, pleadingly. _Well, I DID make him fall down the stairs… I suppose that I should help him with his 'homework'._

And this is how Kristoph Gavin found himself sitting at his kitchen table, filling out Valentines to people he had never met, and probably would never meet. He looked at the list of names.

Abby Alex Ava Dillon Ema Emily Ethan Isabella Jacob Jayden Klavier Liam Mason Mia Michael Noah Olivia Sophia Will

"Ugh… This is going to take forever." Kristoph groaned.

"Everyone needs a sucker taped to the Valentine, too." His eyes glinted. _Is Klavier… Mocking me? It doesn't seem like him at all…I hope he doesn't end up doing this more._

"So we have to make 19… Minus you…"

"Plus Mr. Harvey!"

"Plus one. So 19."

Kristoph picked up a cheesy valentine, and looked at it in disgust. It had a small bird with the words 'tweet heart' in a speech bubble. _Can I go write my paper now? I think I might enjoy that more than reading these terrible puns._

"So that's Abby's." Kristoph picked up a pencil, and began to write **Abbi** on it. "No, Abby with a Y." Kristoph groaned, and made a sad attempt to turn the I into a Y. "You're using a pencil… You could just erase it."

"Ugh, just hand me a sucker." Kristoph was surprised by the quality of the suckers, they weren't small dum-dums, but relatively nice ones.

"Oh… The next one's for Alex. We should give him a nice one."

"Is he one of your friends?"

"No! I mean, not really. I just want to be nice." _If this was for a girl, I'd think he had a 2__nd__ grade crush._

"You don't seem to like him at all. Why do you want to give him something nice?"

"Well… I was telling my teacher about how I wanted to give Alex something really mean for Valentine's Day, but she told me that the meanest thing you could do to a mean person was to be really nice back." _I need to teach him some new words for 'mean'. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't._

"She?"

"Oh. Not my school teacher, my church teacher." _I didn't realize that he ever paid attention in church… _

"So you're being nice just to be mean to him?"

"Yeah." Klavier grinned. _Only my brother…_

"All right. Can I have a sucker?"

"Yeah."

The boys finally finished going through the Valentines after what felt like hours (it was only 30 minutes), and Klavier took the pen out of Kristoph's hand.

"I want to do the last one."

"We already did all the names on the list, Klavier."

"Yeah, for _school._" Klavier grabbed an especially cheesy valentine that said 'You arr my treasure' in a speech bubble coming from a parrot with an eye patch and a pirate hat. He tried to write on it with his left hand, clearly struggling. He then grabbed a sucker, and attempted to tape it on with one hand, the tape not cooperating at all. He handed it to his brother with a sheepish smile. Kristoph was pretty sure that his name was written on it, and he smiled at his brother.

"I suppose I should make one, too." Kristoph picked out his valentine a lot more carefully than Klavier- _You arr my treasure? Really?-_ And wrote his brother's name in much clearer script. He taped the sucker to the valentine- it featured a guitar and said 'You Rock!', something Klavier would actually like- and handed it his brother. Klavier's face lit up, and Kristoph felt small arms wrap around his waist.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Kris."


	14. Chapter 14

Hey guys I'm back from my vacationey thing. So you get to read more stories! :D

**Random clarification**: Yes, Klavier switches bands after he comes back from Germany. This is just his kid band, so expect no Daryan or other people the game may or may not have mentioned XP

Special thanks to White Weasel and my other anonymous friend (you know who you are)! I combined your ideas on this one :3

(O)

"Klavier… Why is there a puppy in my room?!"

"There isn't as much stuff to break in your room as there is in all the other rooms." The ten-year-old greeted him with a bright smile, pausing his game of tug-of-war with the golden retriever pup. The dog now began to drool all over Kristoph's floor.

"Well… Err… Why is there even a puppy in this house?!"

"Mr. DeGernes came by and said that he would pay me fifteen dollars if I watched his dog for a few hours, so I said yes. And the puppy has a name, you know. It's named Vongole." _When did Mr. DeGernes get a puppy? Isn't he like 90?_

"Can't you ask about these things first?"

"I mean, I _could_…" Klavier grinned, placing his hands on his hips. "But it's funny to see your reaction."

"I want that dog out." Kristoph wasn't exactly a fan of being teased, especially not by his brother, of all people.

"Oh come on, Kris, lighten up." He started playing with his hair, still wearing a wide grin. _Did he pick up these weird habits from his band-mates? _

"Not in my room. Put it out in the backyard or something." While they had been arguing, the puppy had found its way over to Kristoph, and was licking his shoe. "What is it doing? Eww!"

"Kristoph, don't be a girl," Klavier laughed, reaching down to pet the… _Beast. _"Look, it likes you! Just pet it, it's cute." Seeing his brother's unbelieving expression, he added, "if you pet the top of its head, it can't slobber on you." Kristoph pet the furry creature, almost finding it cute, in a strange sort of way. He still didn't like the slobbery thing in his room, but… _It's rolling on its belly? Why would it possibly want to do that?! _ Kristoph reached down to rub… _Mongol?_'s belly, and held back a smile at how soft it was. "See? It's cute."

"Hmph. I'd call it soft, but cute is pushing it."

"Oh come on! Look at him!" His voice rose and softened. "Come here, Vongole! Yeah, good boy…" Klavier smiled, petting the small creature happily. "He's only like, a year old."

"Why would an older man like Mr. DeGernes buy a puppy? It might outlive him…"

"If Mr. DeGernes dies, can we keep him?"

"Klavier! That's not something you say out loud!"

"Whatever. Please, can we?"

"I might be able to handle you two separately, but not at the same time," Kristoph grumbled.

"Well, maybe once you got back from college you could keep him or something." Both the puppy and the brother were staring soulfully into his eyes. He decided Vongole was much more convincing.

"Better than having him put down, I guess…" Kristoph murmured. _Imagine what life without Klavier will be like… I'm not exactly great at making friends. I might feel lonely, even… Not that I'd tell him that. _"Although Mr. DeGernes is still very much alive, Klavier."

"I know that." Klavier smirked. "So… Can you help me walk him?"

"I wouldn't mind the fresh air, actually." _Or that slobbery creature… _The puppy had crawled into his lap, and not even Kristoph could resist it anymore.

"Yay!"

(O)

The sun was just beginning to disappear under the horizon, the sky still a clear blue. The air felt the warmest it had in months, though the sun's glow was just beginning to weaken. _It's almost summer. _Vongole panted, happily skipping alongside the brothers.

"Kristoph?"

"Yeah?"

"You're going to leave soon, aren't you?"

"For college? Eventually, although not for a few months."

"I don't want you to leave."

"I do regret leaving you behind."

"Do you though? I thought I was annoying and useless." Kristoph blinked in surprise at the young child's blunt words.

"What… Have I ever told you that?"

"No." Klavier looked up at the darkening sky. "But I still feel like I am."

"I don't think that… I mean, everyone has their moments, I suppose, but you have less than average."

"Do you really mean that though? Or are you just trying to cheer me up?"

"If I thought you were annoying and useless, I wouldn't be trying to cheer you up. You talk more when you're happy."

"Thanks. So you'll miss me?" Kristoph found himself met with hopeful eyes.

"Yes. I will."

Klavier hugged his brother, and they were so lost in the moment that neither of them realized that Vongole had marked his territory on Kristoph's shoe. Klavier noticed first, and laughed.

"I think he wants to keep you."

Kristoph just groaned.


	15. Chapter 15

I'm home sick today whoooo. I drew my inspiration for this from my lovely feelings today XD

And the mildly creepy text conversations I've been having… Yeah… :P

This fic takes place in 2012, so remember your popular culture from 2 years ago. I believe in you. (But really, if you don't remember temple run, I'm just going to go back in my bed and puke some more.)

Enjoy! :D

-7:31-

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I miss you. :(

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

I left 20 minutes ago. Are you still feeling sick?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Yeah. I puked again. :/

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Where?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

The toilet.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Well, at least it's not in your bed.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I guess :/

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Are you feeling better at all?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Yeah, my headache's gone now. :)

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Well, that's good. You should try eating some crackers when you feel up to it.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Those crackers are gross.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

They'll settle your stomach. Try drinking some Sprite, too.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I hate sprite. :P

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Then you won't drink too much and make yourself puke again, now will you? The bell just rang for first period, I have to go.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

But I'm soooooo bored, don't leave :/

Kristooooooph….

Kris…

:(

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

STOP.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Seriously, Klavier, I'm going to get in trouble.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

v

w

x

y

z

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Congratulations, you know your alphabet. Now I'm turning off my phone, don't do anything else.

-8:36-

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

458 messages?!

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I was bored :P

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Don't you have anything better to do than text bomb me?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Like puke? XP

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Yeah, go do that.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

You're so mean :(

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Whatever. It's time for 2nd period now.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

But you just started texting me! D:

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Yes, Klavier, that's how high school works. Now don't text me anymore, ok? Go play temple dash or whatever.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

It's temple run, and that game is terrible.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Then why did you play it for three hours yesterday?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I wanted to break my high score of 6000 meters.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Bye.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

NOOOO DON'T GOOOOOOOOOO. :(

-9:30-

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Thank you for only sending me 43 texts this time.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

It was more fun than temple run. :P

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Have you puked since this morning?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

No, but my stomach hurts so bad I kinda want to. :(

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Drink some sprite.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I hate sprite. D:

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

It tastes better than puke.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

That's debatable.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Bye, Klavier. 3rd period.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Aww. :(

-10:25-

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Are you still alive? You didn't send a single message that whole time.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Oh. I was watching cat videos on youtube. :)

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

I'm glad that you found something productive to do…

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Are you going to leave again? :(

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

I have lunch 4th period.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

So you can talk to me? Yay! :D

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

You use a lot of smiley faces, you know. Only girls use that many.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

:P

:(

:D

8)

:v

:C

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

STOP.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

:3

:S

:T

:J

:O

:A

:B

:C

:D

:E

:F

:G

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

One more smiley face, and I won't text you until I finish eating.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Ok fine :/

Kris?

Kristooooph?

Where did you go?

Oh… Did that count as a smiley face?

I guess it did.

It's not very smiley, though.

It's kind of sad, actually.

KRISTOOOPHHHH TALK TO MEEEEE

KRISTOPH

-11:25-

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Ok, it's time for 5th period. Bye.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

But you didn't talk to me that whole time! D:

Dang it I used a smiley-frowny face.

SPEAK TO MEEEEE

-12:20-

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

I will allow you three emoticons before 12:25. Any more than that will result in my phone going off.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Yay you're talking to me! :D

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

So what have you been up to?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I played my guitar for a little while. And I drank some Sprite XP

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Do you feel any better?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

No. :P

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Then how were you able to play your guitar?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Shut up :P

Oh… That was 4. Oops.

KRISTOPH. KRIIIIISSSSSSSTTTTTTOOOOOOOPPPPPPHHHHHHH

-1:15-

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

3 emoticons before 1:20. Only 3.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Fine :P

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

So you're feeling better, then?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Sorta. I took a shower.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

I didn't know you were capable of that without me dragging you by the foot. I didn't realize how chronic your illness was, Klavier.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I was covered in puke! :P

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

So that's what it takes, hmm? I'll keep that in mind.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Shut up.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Why?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

:D

:P

OK THAT'S FOUR YOU CAN LEAVE NOW

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

I'm feeling generous. Why don't I stay?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

It's 1:20 and you're texting in class.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

If you're that bothered, why are you still texting me?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

BECAUSE I'M BORED OUT OF MY MIND.

And I kinda miss you.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Hmm. Well, I should probably turn my phone off now… My German teacher might take it.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Bye.

-2:10-

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

8th period. I'll be home in just over an hour. And since you used an extra one last time, you only get two smiley faces.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

That's not fair! D:

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

One.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

:P

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Zero.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

So will you bring me ice cream when you come home?

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Dairy products are not good when you're puking.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

But I want ice cream.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Can I bring you a popsicle?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Maybe. :P

Darn it. That was 3.

-3:15-

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Didn't you say just under an hour? D:

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Well, I'm sorry if I had to go buy popsicles for a certain blond child.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

When are you coming home?

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Soon.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I kinda got that part, Kristoph.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

I'm home.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Oh. Cool. Can you bring me my popsicles now?

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

You only get one. I'm not letting you puke again.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

I won't my stomach feels all better.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

What flavor do you want?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Pink.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Pink isn't a flavor.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Well, whatever flavor the pink one is. :P

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Strawberry?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

It's strawberry? It doesn't taste like it.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Yeah, it's strawberry. I'll be right up.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Thanks.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

I'm right in front of you. Why are you still texting me?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

It's more fun. :P

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

You actually make all the faces you text?

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

…I'm leaving now. Bye.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Nooo don't goooo.

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

I don't want to get sick, and it's not like you're talking to me anyways.

To: Kris

From: Klavier

Will you keep texting me?

To: Klavier

From: Kristoph

Maybe.


	16. Chapter 16

Hey guys! Still sick as a Vongole! Wow… This is number 16… I'm almost done *sobs*

Well, enjoy guys! :D

(O)

"Kristoph? Can you help me bake cookies?"

"No."

"All right then, I'll just go and use the oven all by myself~"

"That's not necessary, Klavier."

And this is how Kristoph Gavin found himself baking cookies. _Why does he want to make cookies? Why can't he just go and buy cookies like a normal human being?_

Nonetheless, he found himself making pinwheels, chocolate and… Orange? He wasn't going to question Klavier's taste in cookies.

"What's orange zest?"

"It's orange peel."

"Eww! Why would anyone want to eat the peel?"

"The orange part of the peel tastes good, although I wouldn't recommend putting the white part in your cookies."

"Eww. Can we take that out?"

"No. You have to follow the recipe perfectly, or… else." Kristoph gulped, thinking about the time he had tried to cook an egg in the microwave rather than on the stove, expecting it to cook faster. It didn't, to say the least.

"Ok, fine." Klavier stuck his tongue out. "If you think it won't taste bad…"

"It won't. So how about you make the orange part, and I'll make the chocolate part? Then we can combine them and roll them up," Kristoph replied.

"Ok. Can I have the apple juice?"

"Does the recipe call for that?!"

"No, I'm thirsty."

"Oh… Well, here you go."

"Thanks."

"Can you pass me the sugar?"

"Yes. I can."

"Will you pass me the sugar?"

"Ok!"

The two's baking went on like this until one bowl was filled with a creamy brown mixture and the other bowl was filled with a suspiciously chunky yellow goop.

"I don't think you mixed it well enough, Klavier."

"It said to beat it for a minute at medium speed!"

"That's with an electric mixer. Medium speed for an electric mixer is faster than your arms could go."

"Oh. Even if I did it this fast?" He made quick circles with his fists, almost knocking a bowl off the counter.

"I meant faster than your arms could go while actually stirring."

"Oh."

"Ok, this looks good now. Can you help me spread this on top of the brown part?" He pointed to the brown mixture, which had been flattened into a thin rectangle.

"It's yellow. Not orange."

"Don't worry, it probably will look darker once it bakes."

"Are you sure?" _No…_

"Of course. Now will you help?"

"Ok."

Klavier and Kristoph moved the yellow ball onto the brown shape, carefully flattening it on top.

"Ok, so now we have to roll it up, right?"

"Yes."

Klavier attempted to roll it up himself, accomplishing his goal messily.

"I'll cut it." Kristoph picked up a thick knife, and began to cut each cookie out of the log. Klavier picked up each one, and placed it on a cutting sheet. He was almost done when Klavier screamed. In panic, Kristoph thrust the knife in his hand down. Into the back of his right hand.

"OWWWWWW!"

"AHHHHHH!" Klavier immediately began to cry as blood began to seep out of his brother's hand.

"Get the phone, Klavier." _Stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm….._

"Here!" He thrust the phone into Kristoph's left hand.

"Hello? 911? Yeah, umm… I seem to have stabbed myself in the hand."

"_Excuse me?"_

"I accidentally stabbed my hand. It's kind of bloody."

"_Is the knife still in it?"_

"Yes."

"_Keep it in, then. We will be right there."_

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Kristoph? Are you gonna die?"

"No. Why on earth did you scream like that?"

"There was a spider…" Kristoph let out a sigh.

"Well, at least the cookies aren't yellow anymore. I just mixed some red into them, I think. They'll be a nice orange, now." Sarcasm dripped out of his mouth like the blood currently dripping out of his hand.

"Maybe we could give them to vampires?"

"Vampires aren't real, Klavier."

"Oh… I mean, duh. Everyone knows that." Another sigh. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

"Klavier, can you get the door? I'm a bit attached to what I'm doing at the moment."

"Um, yeah."

A woman came in and looked at his hand, wincing. "Is it stuck to the table?"

"Um, yeah." Kristoph repeated his brother's words.

"We need to cut off the circulation to your hand before we remove the knife. Stay still, please."

"I wasn't under the impression that I could leave if I wanted to." She grunted, tying something around his wrist.

"Now I'm going to pull out the knife."

"Klavier, don't look. Seriously, don't. Turn aro-OOOOOWWWWWWW!" Blood squirted from his hand, and he stared at his hand in terror. The woman grabbed a roll of bandages, wrapping them around his hand as more and more blood continued to soak through. Klavier began to cry. _I think I'm going to die. _Finally, the blood stopped flowing through the bandage.

"We need to take you in to get stitches. Please come to the ambulance." She pointed outside.

"All right. Klavier, it's ok, I'll be home soon. It wasn't your fault, so please don't cry anymore. I'm fine."

"o-okay. I'll see you later?"

"Of course."

(O)

"Your hand looks gross."

"It does."

"Will there be a scar there forever?"

"I hope not, but I get the feeling there will."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I-"

"It's not your fault. You just got scared, it's fine. Everyone gets scared sometimes."

"But most people don't get so scared of someone else being scared that they almost die."

"I wasn't anywhere near death," he protested. "I figured out I can do something cool with my hand, though."

"I don't wanna look at it. It's gross."

"You've already looked at it a lot. Just one more time."

"Fine." Kristoph flexed his hand, and the sight scared Klavier even more.

"It's like a skull!" he gasped. "I guess your hand died, even if you didn't."

"My hand is perfectly all right, Klavier. I'll be able to scare a good number of kids away with this," he grinned.

"Starting with me." Klavier ran away, and his footsteps echoed on the stairs. Kristoph ran after him, laughing.

The cookies were thrown away.

(O)

A/N: So IDK if I'm the only person who can actually make their hand look like Kristoph's does when you perceive him… Is that at all creepy? XD


	17. Chapter 17

Wow… 2 more stories and then the finale. I can't believe I'm almost done *sobs* If you guys have any ideas for 18 or 19, PM me or review. You guys have good ideas :)

(O)

"Kristoph? I'm scared."

"Why are you scared?" The sophomore didn't look up from his homework.

"I'm going to fifth grade camp."

"Why is that scary? Are Alex and Dillon still bothering you?"

"No. They're kinda scared of me now. But I've never slept outside before."

"It's not too hard. Just go outside and lay in the grass."

"There's bugs in the grass! Plus, it's 5th grade **camp**, so obviously we're camping in tents."

"Well, we don't have a tent."

"Can we get one?" 

"No. Tents are expensive and we'll never use it again for as long as we live." He thought for a moment. "We have a tarp. If you hung it over a rope, it would be similar to a tent. You could use pencils or something as stakes."

"What's a tarp?"

"It's like a blanket made of plastic."

"Why would anyone want a blanket made of plastic? That sounds uncomfortable."

"They're cheap, and good for messy things like paint."

"Why do we have one?"

"I wouldn't know. It's in the garage. There should be some rope in the garage, too. Just tie the rope between two trees or something."

"Can you help me?"

"Maybe later. This English project is painstakingly long. I don't see much of a point in forcing us to write two sentence reviews on 30 different short stories…" he grumbled.

"That's a lot to put in 2 sentences!"

"I mean 2 sentences each. I have to write 60 sentences total, and read 30 stories. And most of them are boring or depressing. Who has the free time to write about talking ravens? I'm just…"

Klavier backed out of the room slowly, and opened the door to the garage. It was very dark. He swung his arm to look for the light switch, and yelped when he felt a thin web cover his arm. He jumped in place, shaking his arm frantically. His fist met the light switch, turning it on. _Well, that's one way to do it… _Klavier wiped the spider web off onto his pants. Looking around the gray room, he found the 'blue blanket' rather quickly. The rope, however, took a bit more of a search. He finally found it in a strange box in the corner of the room. He opened the garage door, and carried the two objects with him as he walked around the house and into the backyard. He found two trees, and tied the rope between them as Kristoph had suggested. The blond child threw the tarp over the top, only to have the ends meet in a straight line down the middle. _Oh. I still need pencils. _

Klavier climbed up a few steps and opened the back door to his home. Walking into the kitchen, he found a few pencils, and gathered them in his fist. "Klavier, you might not want to use pencils. They really don't work very well."

"Well what should I use?" Klavier whined.

"You want something that's wider at the top than at the bottom. Or at least has some kind of large, flat surface on top."

"Like a tack?"

"You're going to want something bigger than a tack, but you've got the right idea." Kristoph held back a laugh.

"It's not funny!" Klavier's pout quickly evaporated into excitement. "What if I used duct tape to tape the pencils to the tarp?"

"I suppose that would work."

"All right. I'm gonna go try that." Walking back outside to the location of the 'tent', he attempted to rip the duct tape, which he accomplished after great difficulty. He taped the eraser end of a pencil to a blue corner, and stretched it away from the ropes. He pushed the pencil into the ground with his foot. After doing this to all four corners, the tarp resembled some sort of refuge. He proudly walked back into the house. "I finished!"

"Do you have anything for the floor?" Kristoph still refused to look up from his homework.

"No…"

"The grass isn't wet, so you could probably just use a blanket. You should get your pillow and sleeping bag, too."

"Ok, I will!" Klavier skipped off to his room.

"_Only 8 more…" _he heard faintly behind him. Klavier pulled a pillow and blanket from off his bed, and attempted to pick up his sleeping bag as well. When this failed, he kicked the sleeping bag in front of him as he walked. _Two trips is for weenies._

He threw everything he was carrying onto the grass. He spread out the blanket as best as he could under the tarp, and threw his pillow and sleeping bag on top. He climbed on top of the bag, and stared up at the sea of blue above him. _Oh. I don't actually have to camp until nighttime. _Crawling out of his makeshift bed, he returned to the kitchen, to his brother's annoyance. "Kristoph? Can we make s'mores?"

"We don't have anywhere to build a fire. The fireplace hasn't been used in a while, and I don't want to imagine what's inside of it now." He glanced upwards for the first time that evening. "Have you ever tried to cook marshmallows in the microwave?"

"No. You're supposed to cook them over the fire."

"It's actually somewhat amusing to watch them cook in the microwave."

"What happens?"

"I won't give it away. We have some marshmallows in the pantry, I believe, along with some chocolate and graham crackers."

"Why do you sound weird?"

"Hmm?"

"You're using fancy words, like amusing and believe."

"Believe isn't exceedingly fancy."

"And exceedingly."

"I'd blame it on reading so many short stories," Kristoph grumbled.

"Oh. Well, I'm gonna go look for some s'mores stuff now. Bye." Klavier walked into the pantry, quickly finding the marshmallows and graham crackers. The chocolate was nowhere to be found. "Kristoph?" he called.

"What?"

"Where's the chocolate?"

"We keep it on the top cabinet. It might be gone already."

"Oh, I found it. Thanks." Klavier grabbed the packet of Hershey's and walked into the kitchen, arranging a stack of the sugary objects on a plate. "So I just put it in the microwave in a stack?"

"Well, I… Yeah, sure. Go ahead and try that."

"Stop laughing! What happens?"

"Just put it in the microwave." Klavier obeyed.

"How long do I cook it for?"

"20 seconds should be good." Klavier pressed a 2, a 0 and START. He immediately ducked, almost expecting it to explode. When he stood up, he was faintly disappointed to find it just a normal marshmallow. And then, it began to grow.

"Kristoph! It's exploding!" Klavier fell onto his knees again, covering his head with his hands. The only thing that happened to be exploding was Kristoph's laughter.

"It doesn't explode. It just gets really big."

"Oh." The timer beeped, which caused the bomb-expecting blond to jump. Standing up, he opened the door to the microwave and poked the s'more, the graham cracker no longer on top of the sweet explosive. "Can I eat it?" More laughter.

"Yes, Klavier. It won't kill you." With that, Klavier took a bite. _This is really good! _"It might give you food poisoning, though. I'd throw it away."

"Ahh! I already ate some!" Klavier dropped it on the ground, graham cracker crumbs flying all over the floor.

"I was joking, Klavier."

"Oh. Well, you made me make a mess!"

"You should really clean that up." With a groan, the blond child pulled out a broom from the hallway closet and began to sweep the crumbs into a pile, only to sweep that pile into the dustpan.

"I hate you."

(O)

After a few more microwave s'mores (and 8 short stories for Kristoph), Klavier found himself laying awake, staring at the blue plastic above his head, and listening to the noises around him. The crickets' chirps were somewhat relaxing, but one too many owl hoots had prevented the child from ever having any sort of chance of falling asleep. He walked back into the house, only to find Kristoph in his pajamas.

"Can you come outside and sleep with me?" Kristoph's face turned an unfamiliar color of red, only to return to its normal paleness within a few seconds. _Did I say something weird?_

"Um… No. I'll stay with you until you fall asleep, but I won't be able to sleep out there. Is that ok?"

"Yeah, I guess."

The brothers walked outside, crawling into the tent. Klavier crawled into his sleeping bag, as his brother simply laid on the soft floor without any other sort of cushion.

"_Hoooooot…"_

"Gahhh!" Klavier jumped immediately, his shrill voice causing Kristoph to do the same. The sophomore sighed, crawling over to Klavier and sitting down. He began to stroke his brother's hair, as he had done many times before. Klavier visibly melted, leaning his head into his brother's shoulders contentedly. It wasn't long until faint snores could be heard.

_Wait. He's __**on **__me. How am I supposed to fall asleep now?_

It was all Kristoph could do not to let out a groan. _Do I just have to stay here all night? _He attempted to squirm out of his brother's subconscious death hold, but all he could accomplish was to lie down as his brother's head held him pinned to the blanketed floor. He took Klavier's pillow, which wasn't being used, and put it under his own head. He felt his eyelids grow heavy, his consciousness slipping.

(O)

"Klavier… This paper says that you'll be staying in cabins. Cabins with air-conditioning and bunk beds."

"Oh. Well, at least I know how to camp now!"

"That's debatable."


	18. Chapter 18

Woah this one's really long! I only have one more story before the finale, so enjoy the extra length. :D

And if anyone has suggestions for the 2nd to last chapter, I'm all ears :)

* * *

><p>If there's one thing a high schooler loves, it's sleep—and Kristoph Gavin was no exception. The freshman laid in his bed with his eyes closed, the gentle pull of sleep losing its grip, to his dismay. He opened his tired eyes, and jumped so violently that his head slammed into the wall behind him. The bright blue eyes that had startled him now were filled with guilt and surprise.<p>

"Are you ok?"

"No! Were you watching me sleep?!" Kristoph rubbed his head.

"No… I was just seeing if you were asleep. You weren't."

"I **was**… And then a certain 3rd grader had to wake me up."

"But I was being so quiet!"

"Then why am I awake?"

"I don't know…" The seven-year-old stared at his feet longingly. "Oh! I remembered why I came in here. Are you busy tonight?"

"Why?"

"Are you?"

"No, but I can be," Kristoph growled. If he normally had a grumpy demeanor, mornings made everything much worse.

"Well… There's a fall festival going on tonight, and I sorta wanted to go."

"And I assume you want me to go on hay rides and watch bonfires with you?"

"I actually kinda wanted to go in the corn maze. It's really cool, they have these-"

"I just decided I'm busy. Sorry."

"Pleeeease?" A hint of desperation was added to the high-pitched voice. His face lit up, and he left. _Heaven knows what he's doing now. _The young boy returned, clutching a mug. "I brought you coffee. You can have it if you agree to take me."

Kristoph suddenly remembered why the seven-year-old was in the 3rd grade already, downing the cup within seconds.

(O)

"Have you ever toasted a marshmallow before?"

"No, but it can't be that hard!" _Trust me Klavier, anything involving you and fire is more than difficult. _His suspicions were confirmed when the child returned with a charred black object on a stick, his face filled with disappointment.

"Here, I'll show you how." Kristoph picked up a stick himself, skewering a marshmallow. He held it a few inches over the coals, rather than in the flame itself. A perfectly browned marshmallow was presented to the 3rd grader, who plucked it off, smushing it between two graham crackers and a bar of chocolate.

"Cawn wee goa tew dee mase naw?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full." A white and brown tongue was shot at Kristoph, who tried not to puke. _Food stays in your mouth. _He almost contradicted himself, however, as he tried to swallow the bile rising in his throat.

"Can we go to the maze now?"

"If you promise that your food will stay in your mouth."

"Okay." He grinned, his teeth stained with chocolate. _Well, I suppose it's still in his mouth, technically… _

The two entered the maze, the corn taller than even Kristoph. He wasn't sure how he felt about this. The two wandered for a while, until they came to a strange board.

"What's this?"

"This maze is really cool. There's five color boards, and there's a little cup of paint. So you stick one finger in each, and at the end, there's a board that tells you your fortune depending on which color you got on which finger."

"So you're supposed to cover your fingers in paint?" Rather than answering this question, Klavier eagerly dunked his thumb into the cup, pulling out a blue thumb.

"Come on, you try!"

"I'd rather not."

"You **have **to, though!" Rather than argue, Kristoph reluctantly dipped the tip of his pinky finger into the blue. _Maybe we won't find any more of these, and it won't be so bad. _Kristoph was not one who enjoyed things as trivial as fortune-telling and colored fingers, although his brother loved them.

"Fine. My pinky's blue now." Klavier gave him a look that he assumed meant that a single blue dot on his pinky finger wasn't satisfying enough.

"I apologize if having blue paint dripping from my thumb isn't as amusing as it is for you."

"Ugh. Your big words are soooo annoying." Klavier stuck out his tongue. _Well, at least his tongue is pink now… _"Fine. Be that way. Let's go find the next one." Klavier grabbed his wrist and took off, causing Kristoph to stumble.

"I am **not **running."

"But it's gonna be dark soon!" It was true. Even through the masses of corn Kristoph could see pinks and oranges begin to taint the soft blues of the sky.

"Well, then I guess we won't be able to tell what color our fingers are." Kristoph liked that thought.

"Ugh. Fine." Klavier yanked his wrist, and pulled him into a swift walk. Kristoph sighed, understanding this was the slowest he was allowed to go. Kristoph followed as Klavier walked around aimlessly, finally approaching another board after what felt like an hour. "Ooh, this one's orange!"

"Fantastic." Kristoph hesitantly dipped his ring finger into the orange goop, after Klavier excitedly shoved his middle finger into the mixture. A little too excitedly actually, considering the finger. "Aren't you going to go in order?"

"What fun is that? Besides, my pointer finger has to be purple. It's my favorite color."

"Wouldn't you have wanted your thumb to be your favorite color? You'd have more of it on you."

"Nah. I want my favorite color on my favorite finger." He grinned, and Kristoph just sighed. "Come on, let's hurry." Looking up, the pinks and oranges had fully conquered what little blue had remained. He guessed that it would be hard to see in a matter of fifteen minutes. Klavier interrupted this thought, grabbing his brother's hand and leading him towards the next color. After another ten minutes of wandering, they approached another board.

"Oh, this looks like it's green," Kristoph noted.

"Are you sure? It's kinda dark."

"Yeah, I think so." Taking a closer look, he confirmed his idea. "Since this is my favorite color, it's going on my thumb." _As it should be. _He dunked his thumb into the paint.

"Wow, Kristoph. I thought having paint dripping from your thumb wasn't **amusing** for you." _You don't even know what that word means._

"I believe I said that I didn't like **blue **paint dripping from my thumb. My favorite color is a different story."

"You should try growing plants now."

"What?"

"You have a green thumb!"

"I assure you, I- Oh. Right. My thumb is physically green."

"Yeah. Well, this color's going on my ring finger." _Oh… I guess I got a little carried away with the green, not letting him go first. If I don't stop, he might assume that I __**enjoy **__this… Silly child._

"It's getting dark. We should be leaving soon."

"Then you should hurry!" Another yank on his arm prompted him to meet his brother's eager pace. Once again, he followed blindly until they reached another board, which was only a few minutes away.

"Darn! Still no purple!" Klavier dipped his pinky into what looked like red paint. It was getting impossible to tell.

"Klavier, we should go now. It's getting dark, and we'll be able to read our fortunes, knowing that the last finger will be purple."

"No! My finger **has **to be purple! This one was really easy to find, I'm sure we'll find the purple one soon." Kristoph grunted, dipping his middle finger lightly into the red paint.

"All right." Klavier didn't need to grab his hand this time, Kristoph met the boy's pace without needing prompting. Klavier wove through corn, anxiously looking for a board.

"Oh! I see one!"

"Klavier, this is the orange one. We've already been here."

"Oh. Darn it!" Klavier looked at the board grumpily. "Well, let's keep going. Maybe it's closer to the entrance." They wandered around for what felt like an hour, although the minute hand on Kristoph's silver watch only moved around a fourth of the circle.

"Klavier, it's been fifteen minutes. We should leave, it's too dark to see anything."

"No! I have to have a purple finger!"

"If it's that important, we can stop at the store on the way home."

"But that's **cheating**!"

"Ugh. Fine, let's keep going." After another twenty minutes, however, Kristoph began to feel very concerned. "Klavier, we're just walking in circles. Can we just cut through the corn? We're really lost."

"No! That's cheating!"

"Klavier, I'm cutting through, whether you come with or not." There was no way that the seven-year-old would volunteer to wander around in the dark alone.

"Fine." Kristoph cut through the corn, and waited for his brother to follow. He didn't. Kristoph began to feel very concerned.

"Klavier? Are you coming?"

"No. That's cheating. You can cheat if you want, but I won't." _It's a corn maze. It's not your math final exam… _

"I'm not coming back for you. Come through now, or you'll be here all by yourself."

"Bye, Kristoph." He heard shuffling. _Oh, no. I'm going to find him curled up in a crying ball an hour from now. Whatever. At least he'll start wailing once he gets scared, and I'll just cut through the corn and find him. _He chose the paths **he **wanted to for the first time that night, until he found a board. _The darn red one. _He walked past it, wondering where the farmers could have hidden the purple board that would make it so hard to find. After cutting a few more corners, he finally found the purple board. He dipped his pointer finger into it. _Oh. I guess we'll have one color in common, then. _He looked at his hand. The tip of each finger had a dot of color, assuming that the thumb wasn't a finger. His thumb was completely and totally green. Kristoph decided that he would stay at the purple board until the blond child showed up, and he reluctantly sat on the dirty ground. His legs thanked him, however, and he sat and waited, staring up at the stars. However, as he watched the minute hand on his watch move slowly, he began to feel very nervous. _What if he got to the purple board first? _Kristoph pulled out his cell phone. No reception. He spouted a few curse words._ Of all the places that should have cell reception, and this one doesn't! _

"Klavier!" he shouted. "Can you hear me?!" No reply. He stood up, and began pacing. "**Klavier**!" he called, louder. _Still nothing. Why did I leave him alone?_ He stared at his watch. _It's 10:19. His bedtime was almost an hour ago! If we aren't back by the time Father gets home… _He stopped, not wanting to finish that thought. "**KLAVIER!**" _Wait. Did I hear something?_ He heard a faint yell.

"Kris?"

"Klavier! Where are you?"

"I don't know! I got the purple, and I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"Stay where you are, I'm coming." Cutting through the corn in the direction of the voice, Kristoph couldn't help but feel irritated at the thought that Klavier had beaten him to the purple board without cheating. _It's just a trivial activity for children. Calm yourself down._ "Klavier?"

"Yeah?" Kristoph jumped when he found his brother standing right next to him. He braced himself, expecting small arms to wrap tightly around his waist, but they didn't.

"I'm glad you're safe."

"You don't care, or you wouldn't have left."

"I'm sorry, I was-"

"Don't lie to me. You don't care. You only wanted to spend time with me because you wanted coffee, and then you left me in the dark by myself. You probably only wanted to find me because you thought you would be in big trouble if you left me here."

"Klavier, I-"

"Shut up. Let's just get out of here. Or are you going to leave me again?" Even in the dark, Klavier's glare seemed to pierce through his soul, silencing him. He mumbled incoherently, and simply followed Klavier as he tried to find the exit. However, after turning left and right and backwards and diagonally, Klavier fell onto the ground, curling into a ball.

"Klavier?"

"Don't talk to me," came the muffled reply. Kristoph attempted to brush the hair out of his brother's face, but his hand was grabbed before he could reach his cheek. There were probably tears there, but Kristoph wouldn't know.

"I'm sorry."

"Prove it." Kristoph was taken aback because of this statement. "You always say that evidence is everything. I don't think you care, so you're going to have to show me conglutinative evidence to get me to change my mind." _Conglutinative? Doesn't that mean sticky? I'm assuming he means conclusive, although I wouldn't mind a metaphorical adhesive here._

"How should I prove it?"

"That's your job." _True…_

"I don't know how. I mean, I did come and find you."

"Because Dad would get mad."

"I'll buy you ice cream?"

"You just want me to stop crying, because I'm annoying." _So he __**is **__crying…_

"I don't know, Klavier! How am I supposed to show you that I care about you?" This was beginning to sound like a romance movie, although in a romance movie the guy would just kiss the girl and that would be proof enough. Kristoph got the feeling that kissing his brother wouldn't be conglutinative enough of evidence, to say the least.

"You can't, because you don't." The words struck Kristoph like a knife to his heart.

_That's not true. But he's right… I can't prove it. How much do I really care about him?_

Kristoph curled up into some kind of ball himself, his head in his hands. "I guess I should stop annoying you now and go home. Then I won't bother you anymore." Another knife. Kristoph jumped, but not at his brother's words. His hands… Were they bleeding? They were wet. Looking at them revealed no blood, but some watery substance. _Am I… Crying? _Klavier seemed to share his surprise.

"Are you crying?"

"I don't know. I just want you to cheer up, but I can't do that. Some lawyer I'll be, if I can't even convince my own brother that I care about him." The blue eyes that had been glaring into his soul now became soulful themselves, and filled with water. He felt the small arms he had been anticipating earlier wrap around the ball he had curled up into, and he felt his brother crying into his shoulder, warm water soaking through his clothes. Kristoph wiped his own tears off his face, still suspicious of the strange, unfamiliar substance that he had only ever seen coming from his brother and a few over-dramatic girls. "I… I… I love you, Klavier." The words felt even stranger than the tears he felt. His shoulder felt a lot wetter, and he wondered if he said the wrong thing. The grip his brother had on him tightened, making it harder for him to breathe.

"I love you too, Kristoph."

"Let's get out of here."

"I still don't want to cheat."

"I don't want to, either." Klavier let go of his brother, standing up, a bit wobbly. Kristoph stood up more elegantly, putting his hand on his brother's shoulder to support him. His brother looked up at him with a loving smile. They wandered around together. After the great ending that Kristoph had just achieved, he had kind of hoped that the author of this story would let him leave without incident. No such luck. The two wandered through the maze, completely and totally lost. They finally reached a bar. "I can see the hay ride! We can leave!"

"But this isn't the exit. We have to leave through the exit. You said you don't want to cheat."

"I don't…" Kristoph replied with a sigh. _Well, I do, but I don't want to make you mad again. _The two wandered for a while longer, still incapable of finding the exit.

"Kristoph, I'm scared. I want to leave."

"Do you want to cheat? Or do you want to keep going?"

"Keep going."

"You're really being brave, keeping the rules like this."

"Thanks." After 15 more minutes of wandering, the two found themselves in front of the same metal bar. Kristoph looked around.

"Wait! Klavier, this is the entrance! The board's right there, the one that explains all the colors!"

"Really? Oh! You're right! Well, why is this bar here?"

"The Fall Festival must have ended already, while we were inside. I think we have to cheat, unfortunately."

"That's ok, I guess. It's not really cheating," Klavier reasoned. The two ducked under the bar, and Kristoph attempted to leave. "Wait! After all of this, you have to read your fortune!" _Oh, right. _There was a picture of a bunch of hands, at least 100 of them, if not more. Each one had a different combination of colors. "I can't see it very well."

"Here, I'll get out my phone…"

"Mine says… 'You're as hot as a chili pepper! You spice everything up, and enjoy life.'"

"That's pretty accurate."

"What does yours say?"

"All the colors rubbed off my fingers. I can't tell."

"There's four dots on your face… They go purple, red, orange, and blue."

"Well, my pointer finger was purple, and my thumb is still kind of green. So let's see…" Kristoph stared at the sign. "'You're a cool cat. You stay sleek and cool, but watch out for those claws!'" _That's almost unsettling. _

"Are you going to scratch me?"

"No. My fingernail polish would chip."

"Aww."

"Hey! You aren't allowed to be here! Do you want to be arrested for trespassing?" A woman with short brown hair stormed over to them.

"I'm sorry. We got lost in the corn maze, and we just found our way out."

"Oh! I'm sorry you got lost. You kids should really head home now." _Kids? _

"I'm a high schooler, ma'am."

"Whatever, kid. Just get going now, alright?"

This woman was about to feel Kristoph's well-maintained claws.

"Come on, Kristoph. Let's go home."

"All right."

Kristoph couldn't help but hiss a bit as he passed the woman, though.


	19. Chapter 19

This is the last story before the finale… I'm getting so emotionally attached to this story it's ridiculous. I decided against leaving the age 5-10 range for this one, as much as I wanted to have Kristoph teach Klavier how to drive, I don't want to break tradition before the last story. Maybe I'll do a stand-alone one-shot? IDK. Well, I hope you guys enjoy this… And get excited for the (super long) last episode! :D

(O)

_Today has to be fantastic. _

Klavier looked at the calendar. June 21. Kristoph's birthday. Truth be told, the nine-year-old had absolutely no idea how to make Kristoph's day special, but he knew he had to. He woke up at 6 am using his alarm clock app, and even though he snoozed until 8, it's the thought that counts, right? _I mean, Kristoph usually sleeps in until 11 anyways… _

"Now, what would Kristoph want for breakfast?" Klavier looked around the kitchen, eying instant oatmeal, cereal boxes, and pancake mixes. "He doesn't normally have anything besides coffee… Maybe I can make special coffee!" He pulled out his I-phone and typed _Coffee recipie _into Google, quickly adjusting the spelling of 'recipe'. "Darn it! All of these have alcohol." However, after reading some strange woman's blog, he learned that a scoop of ice cream could make coffee taste better immediately. Opening the freezer, he found a container of chocolate chunk ice cream, and scooped a spoon of it into the mug. Then, he found some frozen whipped topping in a forlorn corner of the freezer, and scooped a frozen glob into the cup. "Perfect! Kind of." The white glob floated in the strangely colored white-brown mixture. He placed it on the table. He looked at the clock- 9:20. _How long did I spend making coffee?! _

The young child ran up the stairs to his brother's room. _Wait… He might not want to be woken up. _The child debated with himself for a while, before quietly creeping into the room. He placed the coffee on his brother's nightstand, and exited the room silently. Slowly turning the knob, he closed the door, listening for any noise to indicate that his brother was awake. To his delight, there was none. "Ooh. I should make a card." Klavier walked down the stairs to the kitchen, pulling out some paper and markers from a drawer. "What would Kristoph want on his card? Something lawyerey?" He thought for a second. He drew 'the judge's little poundy thing' on the front, pounding on the 'little circle thing', and wrote _**guilty of being the best brother ever **_on the front, grinning to himself. On the inside, he wrote _**you are here by sentenced to have a happy birthday**_. He laughed a little at how fancy he sounded. Gripping the yellow construction paper, he skipped up the stairs, tripping twice. He crept into his brother's room again, and left the card next to the coffee. _I wonder what Kris would want to do when he woke up… Oh! I still need to get him a present. Except he doesn't like most of the presents I give him… _Suddenly, the figure next to him stirred.

"Klavier?"

"Aah! Oh, Kristoph! Happy Birthday! I uh… I made you coffee. It was called an ice moch ha." The tired high schooler laughed at this.

"Thanks, Klavier. Did you make the card, too?"

"Yeah." Opening it, he chuckled a bit when he saw the inside. "Thanks." Taking a sip of his coffee, he blinked in surprise. "Wow, that's actually pretty good."

"Really?" Klavier's eager, high-pitched voice stung Kristoph's ears.

"Yeah."

"I wanted to get you a present, but I didn't know what to get…" Klavier looked at his socks sadly.

"Klavier, this is a really good present. I'm really thankful."

"All the other days of the year I make you do all kinds of things… But I don't actually know what **you **like to do."

"If it weren't for you dragging me around to the ends of the earth, I probably would never leave my room." Kristoph smirked.

"Well, what do you wanna do today?" He shrugged.

"I just want to stay at home, I think. Maybe we could get some Chinese take-out, and eat in the backyard." _Kristoph is soooo boooring… _

"All right, if you want to."

(O)

Kristoph and Klavier sat out on their back porch, eating take-out and watching the sun as it set. The colors were surprisingly vivid, and Kristoph sat and watched peacefully. _I do enjoy times like this. _

"Kwistoff?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

"Sawwy." Klavier swallowed. "Are you having a good birthday?"

"Yeah, I am."

"That's good." Klavier looked up at him with a heartwarming smile. "Oh! I forgot something." He ran inside, leaving Kristoph by himself. Looking up at the sky, he smiled. They were painted with a variety of rich, warm colors. The summer breeze blew by his face softly.

"It is a good birthday," he murmured. Suddenly, he heard a crash. "Klavier, do you need some help with the door?" he called. He was answered with a slam as the door opened violently. The small child was attempting to hold a plate with one hand and his guitar in the other.

"Heh heh. Two trips is for weenies." Kristoph just shook his head with a hand raised. "I bought a thing of cupcakes. And I learned the birthday song on the guitar." He placed the plate of cupcakes on the table in front of Kristoph, and picked up his guitar with a second hand. He grinned. "Happy biiiiiiiirthdaaaaaaay to youuuuuuuu….." He held out each note for an unreasonably long time, mocking the traditional tune. Finishing the song, he laughed a bit.

"As amusing as that was, I'm still impressed by your musical abilities."

"I think that's a compliment?"

"Yes. It is." Kristoph smiled at him warmly. "Come here." He patted the seat next to him, and Klavier practically jumped into it, abandoning his guitar.

"Can I have one of your cupcakes?" Kristoph laughed somewhat hard at this.

"Yes. They're technically yours."

"Yeah, but I still wanted to ask." He grabbed a cupcake, stuffing his mouth contentedly. _He looks like a hamster._ Kristoph took one himself, eating it in a way that was less similar to a rodent. "Kristoph?"

"What?"

"I don't want this to end."

"What do you mean?"

"In a year, you're gonna be in college. And I won't see you anymore."

"That's not true. I'll come home whenever I can."

"It won't be the same," noted Klavier sadly.

"Klavier, these moments are never going to end. I may be further away, and these moments may grow less frequent, but they'll never end."

"Promise?" Kristoph laughed.

"I promise."

Klavier cuddled up against him, his head on his brother's shoulder.

_This might be the best birthday I've ever had._


	20. Chapter 20

Well, here is the finale! *insert intense sounding cross-examination allegro music here*. The finale is actually shorter than expected… I might add an epilogue or something to the end later. (It ends on a nice little cliff hanger, FYI)

Well, as I say way too much, enjoy! I'll miss writing this guys, so I hope you get as much out of reading it as I did out of writing it. You guys make it worth it :)

(O)

"Fop?"

Klavier sat alone in his office, the day after the Misham trial. He didn't want company, but he knew the fastest way to be left in peace would be to answer **her** demands.

"Ja?"

"You've got a visitor."

"I'm busy."

"You aren't on a case right now."

"I have two jobs, Fraulein Skye."

"Not according to the papers this morning." He sighed.

"Who's the visitor?"

"Apollo."

"Nein, I'm not in the mood."

"Objection! I'm not leaving until I talk to you, Prosecutor Gavin." _Has he been out there this entire time?!_

"I do hope you find the hallway comfortable then, Herr Forehead."

"Gavin, we're coming in whether you let us or not," Ema growled.

Taking this to heart, the prosecutor was silent as he reluctantly stood up and twisted the doorknob. Two faces stared at him, one worried, and one annoyed.

"Will you please explain what's going on?!"

"It's not every day you get a trial that rocks harder than one of our gigs, ja? That's why it's over! The Gavinners are breaking up." His face became incredibly serious as he considered what he had just said. "The news caused a run on tissues at supermarkets nation-wide." The seriousness left his face, evaporating into an egotistical smile. "You're the real stars, now! I look forward to our next jam session." He flashed the best smile he could muster, and tried to slam the door. A shoe found its way in between the door and the wall, however, and Apollo yelped in pain, hopping around for a second.

"THAT HURT!"

"Your Chords of Steel are a bit much, ja?" He sighed. "I have ice in my office. I suppose I should let you in."

To his surprise, Ema had left without a trace. _She probably had enough of my foppishness to last her a while. _He guided the one-legged attorney to rest in a plushy chair as he filled a bag with ice. "Prosecutor Gavin, there's-"

"We aren't in court, Herr Forehead. My name's Klavier."

"Nice to meet you, Klavier. My name's **Apollo**," he replied sarcastically. Klavier handed him the bag of ice, and he grabbed it, taking off a shiny black shoe and pressing the ice onto the side of his sock. _His feet are so tiny… _"There's no way I believe that you quit your band because you thought prosecuting was more hardcore than singing."

"It isn't," he laughed quietly. He looked down at the ground, thinking very hard about what he was about to say. "Kristoph told me to become a musician. I don't want to feel controlled by him anymore," he admitted.

"Don't you like singing?"

"Ja."

"Then isn't quitting something you love because of Kristoph letting him control you even more?"

"...Ja. I suppose you're right about that. But the band was already suffering without Daryan, and that trial put me over the edge. Plus, I can't sing about how great life is with some girl when I'm single and miserable." Apollo laughed a little, causing Klavier to jump. "...Sorry. You sounded like **him **for a second there."

"You care about **him**, don't you?"

"Nein. He's a cold-blooded killer. As I said yesterday, he's not needed anymore." Apollo smirked at this.

"It seems like that nervous habit of yours runs in the family. Your hand tensed up when you said that." Klavier looked at the attorney in disbelief. "It's ok to care about your brother, you know."

"How would you know? You were an... only child, ja?"

"I might not have any biological siblings, but I know what being betrayed by someone close to you feels like." Klavier met him with piercing blue eyes, wondering who exactly he meant.

"The man who was standing as a guest witness yesterday wasn't my brother."

"It wasn't." Klavier looked up at Apollo, slightly surprised. "I was your brother's apprentice, you know."

"That was after he snapped, ja?"

"Yeah, but..." the attorney stopped, pressing a finger to his forehead. "I still can understand the good you see in him."

"Explain."

"He kept pictures of you all over his desk. And he played your music around the office, even though he had probably spent an entire hour explaining to me how much he hated rock songs. He told me that you sounded better playing classical music, anyways." Apollo looked up with a grin. "I can't really see you as one to play Beethoven on the guitar."

"He remembered that?" Klavier looked up at Apollo wistfully.

"Yeah. He told a lot of stories about the things you did together. That's why I was so surprised to learn you were his brother in our first trial… You don't strike me as the type to ask Kristoph for dating advice." They both laughed.

"Herr… Apollo?" The name felt strange on his tongue.

"Yeah?"

"I want to see my brother. Not that creepy witness from yesterday, but my brother. But I…" He trailed off.

"You don't want to risk running into the creepy witness from yesterday, and want someone to go with you?"

"Ja."

"I'd be happy to. I want to see your brother, too."

(O)

Klavier and Apollo stood in the lobby of the prison, waiting for visiting hours. Klavier felt… small, almost. He knew it was naïve to believe that his brother would be in there, and that Kristoph would apologize and break down at the sight of him. But it had happened once, hadn't it? _The devil who did this to you is gone now… He won't be back for a long time. _Apollo had noticed the uneasiness of the prosecutor, and met his icy blue eyes with warm brown ones.

"Have you ever heard me and Trucy yelling before trials?"

"Ja. It's hard not to. Although I've never been able to make out what you were saying. The first time I thought you had gotten into some argument, but you were both happy when you sat down at the defense bench."

"Heh heh. Me and an old friend of mine always yell 'I'm fine' when we're nervous or upset. Now, it's sort of a pre-trial tradition."

"Achtung! I'm not going to start yelling in the middle of a prison, if that's what you're implying."

"Then just say it," he urged. "Here, I'll start. I'm Apollo Justice, and I'm fine!" Apollo looked at him expectantly.

"I'm Klavier Gavin, and I'm fine," he mumbled. Still feeling Apollo's gaze, he sighed. "I'm Klavier Gavin, and I'm fine. I'm Klavier Gavin, and I'm fine! Ja… Happy now?"

"Do you feel better?"

"Ja… A little," he admitted.

"Yeah, I think I'm happy now."

"Visiting hours have begun," a woman at the front desk called.

"Mein Gott, I'm fine." Klavier tried not to start shaking in his fear.

"Keep that up."

(O)

Klavier and Apollo were led down a long, dark hallway, where their own shadows shifted along the bare walls, barely contrasting against the dark gray walls. It brightened a bit when they entered Kristoph's visiting room, but only slightly.

"So, you showed up." The coldness in his brother's voice crept down Klavier's spine, and he tried to prevent himself from shivering.

"Of course…" The prosecutor stared at his own shadow, avoiding contact with his brother's icy gaze.

"He's your brother. Why wouldn't he come?"

"I thought I wasn't needed anymore," he grunted, actually seeming somewhat amused. Klavier met him in the eyes, and felt overwhelmed by the lack of… anything, really. There was nothing there, just emptiness. There was an awkward pause, both Klavier and Apollo too overwhelmed to speak.

"In regards to the law, you haven't changed as it did, so it left you behind. But family's more of a 'no man left behind' type of thing, from what I understand," Apollo finally said quietly.

"Wise words, coming from an orphan. If family's truly a 'no man left behind' type of thing, as you say, you seem to contradict your own rule." Kristoph grinned as the attorney squirmed in pain.

"Kristoph… Stop." Klavier glared at his brother. "There's no point."

"Hmph. I was just trying to present my evidence. They don't give you much to work with when you're behind bars. Now tell me. Why are you here?" Klavier met his mocking glare fiercely.

"I wanted to see if my brother was here. I don't think he is."

"Oh?"

"You aren't my brother. I don't know where he is, but he's gone." Klavier stared at the ground, angry and hurt.

"I apologize that you seem to have lost him. Maybe you should try searching harder."

"Nein… I've spent long enough looking for you." Klavier lifted his head to glare at his brother.

"Ah, it seems like Mr. Justice has left you. I would think you would have met better friends than him… Or not, considering how you were as a child."

"Tell me… How long have you been like this? Were you good once, or have I just been deceived my entire life?" Klavier choked out the words bitterly.

"I've always done what I thought to be right. I have no regrets."

"That's a lie. Ja, you hurt me as a kid, but you always apologized."

"Because you annoyed me and apologizing was the quickest way to silence you."

"Nein… You loved me once, I'm sure of that."

"Then maybe your theory of me not being your brother was correct."

"I agree."

"Kristoph, I have a question for you."

"Oh, is the little red traitor back?" Kristoph grinned. "I might have an answer for you." Klavier cringed at the wording, seemingly to Kristoph's delight.

"Why did you fight so hard?"

"Hmm? I'm afraid I don't follow your line of logic, Justice."

"In the second trial… You were on death row… You had nothing to lose. Why didn't you just admit your guilt to the murder before I was able to prove Mr. Wright innocent of forgery? Wouldn't that have worked out better for you?"

"It would seem suspicious for me to kill a forger. The police would have investigated the forgery and found me guilty."

"Your hand gave you away again. Not like it needed to- nobody as intelligent as you would trust our police department to do anything useful," Apollo snorted

"Kristoph… Why?" Kristoph stared at his brother with sad eyes.

"Ah, so my brother found some words, hmm? I gave you my reason. If you don't believe it, why don't you share a theory of some other motive I might have?"

"The governor pardoned your death sentence after this trial, ja? Gave you a life sentence instead?"

"That's because he thought Kristoph might have committed other crimes that haven't come to light yet, he they wanted to be able to put him on trial so nobody else would be found guilty for Kristoph's crimes," Apollo answered. "That would be a motive to fight less hard, really."

"Then maybe you wanted the satisfaction of winning?"

"No." Klavier looked to Apollo, who shrugged.

"He's not lying. But there's absolutely no reason for him to put up such a big fight!"

"I'm an evil human being. Isn't that reason enough?"

"Objection! The only reason that makes sense… Is if… Ahhh!" Klavier jumped in surprise.

"What?" Apollo looked at him, concerned.

"You did it… For me." Klavier looked up at his brother in shock.

"Why do you think that?" Kristoph smirked.

"You wanted to give me a fair fight, brother to brother… Just like I'd always wanted."

"You still can't prevent yourself from believing in me? Even now? There's nothing left of the brother you once knew. You're simply being ignorant, Klavier."

"Gotcha." Apollo smirked, giving Klavier a shred of hope. "Klavier's right. When you said 'ignorant', the corner of your mouth twitched downwards, as if you wanted to frown at what you're saying."

"And how do I know that you aren't just making this up?"

"Wh-what?" Apollo's face filled with confusion.

"It's not as if you haven't used forged evidence before, Justice." Klavier jumped.

"Th-that's not true… Herr- Apollo… He's lying, isn't he?"

"I wouldn't use forged evidence… Not on purpose."

"You mean, you…"

"When Kristoph was convicted the first time… I used forged evidence without knowing it."

"What do you- Achtung! Kristoph, you changed the subject! Apollo, I'll yell at you later, ja? First, I have some… family business to attend to. Kristoph, you wanted to give me a fair fight. Care to explain why?"

"If I didn't, I'd be executed sooner."

"Nein, you wouldn't."

"Klavier. I gave it my all because I didn't want to die. If that's not a motive, I don't know what is."

"Gotcha! Kristoph, you-"

"Objection! Herr Forehead, this is something I need to resolve on my own." Apollo jumped back in surprise, feeling quite unwelcome in the dark room.

"You invited him here, did you not? I'm ashamed that my brother would be so rude as to kick out his own guest."

"Kristoph. The only reason you cared to fight was because I was there. Because you fought, your attempt to destroy Wright was foiled. It's the only logical explanation, ja?"

"And why would you matter at all?"

"Because deep down… My brother is still inside of you. And he wanted to do one last thing for me before he died." Klavier could feel moisture building at the corners of his eyes. He had always been quick to cry when he was upset, although the feeling was rare to him.

"Klavier, I… No. I don't care. I wanted to foil Wright, and my plan backfired."

"Objection! Kristoph, try to remember what's important to you!" Apollo stood stunned as Klavier completely stole **his** line (making it sound a whole lot cooler than it had when Apollo said it, of course).

"I'm important to me, and that's it."

"You are nothing now."

"Pardon me?"

"Kristoph, if you are truly the only person who is important to you, you wouldn't want to exist anymore. You aren't anything anymore, you've been forgotten."

"Ah, then why do I have visitors?"

"Family's sort of a 'no man left behind' kind of thing." Klavier smirked at Apollo, who stood motionless in the shadows lining the wall.

"Then why was it so easy for me to leave you behind?"

"You didn't." Klavier felt his strength building. "Kristoph, I know you're in there somewhere. Deep down, I know there's some remote part of your soul that's just glad to see me… That cares about me." Suddenly, Kristoph's glasses slipped from his face. They fell on the table in front of him, the glass shattering. "Kristoph… I still love you."

"I… I know." Kristoph met his brother's blue eyes with his own, though his vision was slightly blurred.

"Y-your hand…" Klavier gasped. "It's bleeding." A piece of glass had managed to fly into the back of Kristoph's hand, slicing it open.

"It… It's ok. The devil's gone now." Looking at his brother's hand, Klavier saw the faint remains of the creepy scar almost cut beyond recognition.

"Prove it."

"What do you mean?"

"How do I know it's gone?"

"Klavier… I… I'm sorry. I've done terrible things, and I wish I had been given that death penalty. It's what I deserve."

"Kristoph?"

"I hurt you, and I'll never be able to fix it. And I don't deserve the chance to, although you do. I'm sorry… for everything. I… I missed you."

"Achtung!"

"I don't know what I can do to repay you, but I'll do-"

"**Kris!**"

"What?!"

"Ja… I missed you too."

"Klavier… I… I love you." Tears rolled down the eyes of both of the brothers, and Klavier was shocked into momentary silence by the weight of the powerful words.

"Promise?" He felt like a child standing there, but only a child could bear to speak, considering the current situation.

"I promise."

"Kris… I love you too."

(O)

Apollo, extremely disturbed by seeing his serial killer ex-boss crying with his famous rock-god friend, slunk out of the room, completely baffled. He pulled out his phone.

To: Trucy

From: Apollo J.

You'll never believe what I just saw…

To: Polly

From: Trucy W.

What? A new mommy? :D

To: Trucy

From: Apollo J.

What?! No! I saw Kristoph Gavin cry!

To: Polly

From: Trucy W.

Huh. You have more Gramarye magic in you than I thought if you could pull off a trick like that. :P

To: Trucy

From: Apollo J.

I need to mentally unscar myself. Anything you could do?

To: Polly

From: Trucy W.

I have a few ideas… :)

(O)

Wow, so dramatic! Awkward Polly and Trucy are awkward, though 3

My heart is breaking just thinking about the fact that I'M DONE WITH THIS. You'll probably see more Klavier and Kristoph one-shots in the future, knowing me. But for now, I'm starting a new story about how each character overcomes their darkest moments- expect lots of angsty cuteness from me in the future. :) But on that note, remember…

_These moments will never end. 3_


End file.
